The Missing Years
by Danni1989
Summary: Companion fic to "Safe in my Arms." The first 16 years of Aiden and Aurora's life, with all the moments we never seen or read about. All the milestones, and precious moments I never wrote in SIMA. Any ideas of what to include are welcome.
1. Year 1

This is a companion fic to Safe in my Arms, featuring all the missing years of Aiden and Aurora's life. There will be one chapter per year, unless people want more. It's all the milestones, and little moments that I'd like to see. Damon and babies was just too cute an opportunity to pass up. I hope you all enjoy this, this chapter is a bit rough, I'm still not sure about the format I'm going to use, or how to write this. Let me know what you think, and any ideas you have to include in each year of the kids lives. I only read through this once, so I hope there arent too many mistakes.

PS I only own my writing and Aiden and Aurora.

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><p>The shrill crying woke the parents up at the crack of dawn, thank God sleep wasn't nearly as important for vampire parents as it was for humans. But they still needed it to get by.<p>

"I'll get them." Damon muttered pulling himself out of the bed he shared with his wife to stumble into the nursery still half asleep. Aiden and Aurora were both sitting up in their cribs screaming their heads of.

"Why don't you sleep?" he asked as he plucked the little boy out of his crib and checking his diaper. When the horrible odour made itself known he carried the boy to the changing table and cleaned him up at vampire speed. He hated changing diapers, usually Elena took care of this, but she needed her sleep too.

"You are a disgusting creature, but I love you anyways." he said kissing the chubby cheek of the 11 month year old. When he was finished he placed the baby on the floor who immediately crawled over to the toy truck littering the floor of the room, no matter how hard they tried to never stayed clean for long. When he was sure Aiden wasn't going to start screaming he plucked the other 11 month year old out of her crib and winced at the terrible smell coming from her.

"You are just as rank as your brother." he said as he proceeded to change her diaper at vampire speed too. The little girl grinned up at her dad and he felt his heart melt a tiny bit more. As much as he loved his sleep, and he loved his freedom, this was even better. Seeing the blue eyes of Aurora and her brother made the past century mean something. When she was done he placed her on the floor too and watched her use her crib to stand up on wobbly legs. She held her free hand out for her dads and he immediately took it and helped her walk across the room to the toy box. Like any sister she immediately decided that the one toy she wanted was the one that her brother had. Aiden started screaming when Aurora took the toy away, so Damon sighed and picked Aurora up and placed her in front of the toy box.

"Leave him alone." he said. She looked up at him from under her crazy long eyelashes and he shook his head.

"Having fun?" Elena asked from the doorway.

"They are lucky they're cute, if they weren't I'd give them to a three ring circus." he said walking over to where she was standing and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple.

"Eventually they'll decide they like sleep too, and they'll sleep past 6 am." she said hopefully.

"Doubtful, they seem perfectly content to ruin my life." he said with a smile on his face that made his criticism completely weightless.

"We should take them downstairs for breakfast." she said picking the little boy up from his truck and causing him to wail. Damon picked Aurora up and carried her downstairs with Elena. Placing them in the highchairs of the house they had just moved into, they fed them the baby cereal. Aiden devoured his, but Aurora was already a picky eater. She was going to be fun.

"Mama water." Aiden babbled. Every time she heard him speak, she grinned widely. Aiden was able to say mama, daddy and water, and those three words were constantly coming out of his mouth.

"Mama water." Aiden demanded.  
>"Alright alright. I'll get you some water." she said getting up and filling a sippy cup with water from the jug in the fridge. She was rewarded with a wide smile from her son when she handed him the cup. When she handed Aurora's to her, Aurora screamed loudly.<p>

"What?" she asked.

"No. Mama no." Aurora wailed.

"No what?" she asked.

"No water." she wailed. In the past few weeks "no" became her favourite word. Everything was no. No this. No that. No to everything.

"Are you hungry sweetie?" Damon asked as he tried to urge some breakfast through her lips.

"No." she said pouting.

"Yes you are. Eat your breakfast." he insisted trying to push the food though her lips.

"No." she said.

"Aurora Charlotte eat." he said making her take a bite of the cereal.

"No." she screamed when she swallowed the offending substance and pushing the bowl off the tray of the highchair.

"She's gotta eat sometime." he said grabbing a cloth and cleaning up the mess on the floor.

"She just doesn't like the cereal." Elena said getting up and grabbing some dry cheerios. "We have to go get groceries today." Elena sighed.

"With them?" he asked pointing at the twins. The last time they had taken them grocery shopping... it had been a disaster to say the least. They screamed the entire way through the store earning glares and smirks from all the other parents in the store with well behaved kids.

"Yes, with them. I'll go get them dressed if you want to clean this up and make some coffee." she said.

"Sounds good. Do you need blood?" he asked.

"Might as well." she agreed. He rushed downstairs and grabbed a couple bags of blood and then started up on the coffee and dishes. Elena carried Aiden and Aurora back upstairs and took them into the nursery. Digging through the closet she picked out clothes for each of them. Jeans and a t shirt for Aiden, a sundress with leggings for Aurora. When she had Aiden dressed he pointed into the closet at his little leather jacket that was a perfect match to his dads.

"You want to wear that?" she asked smiling. He nodded and smiled. "Okay." she said putting it on him. She placed him on the floor and he stumbled over to his truck that he was playing with earlier in the morning. Elena did Aurora's short hair in two little pigtails that looked like devil horns and dressed her in the pink sundress and pink leggings. When she was done, she put the little girls leather jacket on her knowing she would demand it. She was such a daddy's girl and it was amazing to watch. When they were both ready she picked them up and carried them back downstairs.

"Can you watch them while I go get ready?" she asked.

"Yeah." he said. Elena rushed upstairs and dressed and was back downstairs in under ten minutes.

"How I love vamp speed." she said taking Damon's spot. He did the same thing and was back downstairs in five minutes.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Lets get this over with." she said picking up Aiden who was mommy's boy and carrying him out to the SUV.

"You know we really need to start planning their first birthday." he noted as he drove to the grocery store.

"I know, that's coming up really soon. Wow, I cant believe we've had them for almost a year now. It hasn't felt that long." she said glancing back into the backseat to see the kids sitting quietly. It was a rare occasion when they weren't fighting over something or screaming for attention.

"I know, I cant even remember what life was about before them." he said with a small smile on his face.

"Me neither." she admitted when they pulled into the parking lot.

"Okay, do you want the food cart, or the baby cart?" she asked referring to their set up of having two carts.

"I'll take the food. I had them last time, and it wasn't fun." he said.

"Wimp." she muttered as he went to get two carts.

"Why don't we ever give them to your parents so we can shop alone? It would be more convenient and your mom and dad would love to have them." he asked.

"Because we are completely capable to multitask. We can shop and be parents at the same time. Besides my mom and dad are taking them for a while tomorrow so we can buy birthday presents." she said.

"Right, here they go again spending all of my money." he said lightly ruffling the little boys hair.

"They're babies, they cost a lot of money." she said.

"It's good that I have a lot of money then." he said as he pushed the cart towards the store with Elena, Aiden and Aurora just behind him.

"Go to the baby section first." she instructed.

"Yes ma'am." he replied pushing the cart towards the baby aisle. When they were there they picked up some diapers and baby wipes.

"Ugh diapers. I cant wait until they are potty trained." he said.

"That wont be until they're about two. We still have another year or so yet." she said.

"I know." he whined. "Where to next?" he asked.

"Just go up and down the aisles." she said. She followed behind him and endured all the cheek pinching old ladies who were touching her babies. Each time an old lady touched Aurora, she let out a blood curdling scream, while Aiden flirted his way to a smile. Aiden was already too much like his daddy, and he already had a way with women. She was afraid of what he would turn into.

"He is too much like you." she muttered as she walked behind him.

"What is he doing?" he asked.

"He is flirting with the old ladies." she muttered.

"I have never flirted with an old lady." he retorted.

"You flirt with everything with breasts." she muttered.

"Not anymore. I only flirt with one woman now." he stated as he grabbed a couple boxes or Cheerios from the shelf. After about an hour the shopping was all done and they were driving home. The silence in the car was interrupted by a blood curdling scream and Elena snapped back. Aiden had one of Aurora's pig tails clenched in his hand and he was pulling hard.

"You're son is such a bully." she muttered forcing Aiden to release his sisters hair. The little girl had giant tears rolling down her face as she looked towards her daddy who was busy driving the car carefully home.

"Daddy." she whined. He seen the teary eyes in the rear view mirror and sighed. She was too cute for her own good and she loved him. Why did these beautiful girls choose to love him. First Elena, and now his daughter. It was amazing. Aiden started crying after being reprimanded by his mom and the rest of the car ride was filled with screaming babies. When they pulled into the garage and shut the car off he looked in the rear view mirror again and still seen big fat tears flowing down Aurora's chubby cheeks.

"daddy" she wailed. He got out of the drivers side and went to free his daughter from the car seat. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him, burrowing her head in his shoulder. Elena smiled at that and grabbed Aiden bringing him into the house too. She set him on the floor and he immediately went to the corner to play with some toys. Their entire house had been taken over by baby toys and other baby necessities.

"I'll grab the groceries. You're a little preoccupied." she said of Damon and Aurora. Aurora was still clutched to her dad and her eyes were drifting shut.

"Are you sure? I can go lay her down." he said.

"It's alright. She's almost asleep and I don't want to ruin that." she said kissing the little girls head.

"Alright." he said sitting back into the couch and letting her curl up against him. It only took Elena a few minutes to get the groceries put away, as she flitted around at vampire speed. When she was done she picked Aiden up and took him upstairs. With him all you had to do was put him in his crib with his soother and he fell right to sleep. He never made a sound, as long as Aurora wasn't in there until he was asleep. Aurora on the other hand needed cuddling and attention to fall asleep. Aiden's wide blue eyes started drifting shut the minute she put him in his crib. She shut off the light and closed the door partially before slipping out of the room and walking downstairs. Her vampire hearing picked up on Damon humming softly to Aurora, making her smile to herself. He had never thought he would be a good father, but seeing or hearing him with them proved that thought wrong. He was an incredible father. There was no one like him, and she was sure there wasn't a father on the planet that was more passionate and loved his kids so much. She walked into the living room and sat down beside him and rubbed her daughters back.

"Is she asleep?" she whispered too low for Aurora to pick up on.

"Almost." he replied. He continued rocking her until she fell asleep. Elena focused her hearing to listen for Aiden. When she was sure he was asleep, she motioned for Damon to take her upstairs. He returned a couple minutes later and sat down beside Elena on the couch wrapping his arm around her shoulder. It was silent in the house until the front door opened and Jeremy came barrelling in.

"Where are my niece and nephew? I'm here for lunch by the way. What do you have?" the high school senior asked his sister and her husband.

"Aiden and Aurora are sleeping, so keep your voice down. There is food in the kitchen. And if you want to eat it, you're going to have to do me a favour." Elena stated.

"What might that be? You have better food that mom and dad do. Which is odd considering you don't really need to eat." he mused.

"I like food, it still tastes the same. And I want you to babysit tonight." she said.

"Babysit? Alone?" he asked.

"You can bring Bonnie if you want." she allowed.

"Cool. I'm in." he said walking into the kitchen.

"Why do we need a babysitter?" Damon asked.

"You and I are going out with Caroline and Tyler tonight." she decided.

"When was this decided, I don't want to leave Aiden and Aurora home alone with just Jeremy and Bonnie." he said.

"While you were taking Aurora upstairs. Caroline texted me asking us to go for dinner with her and Tyler." she stated.

"Ah. Fine I'm in." he said. Jeremy returned with a sandwich.

"So when do I need to be here?" he asked.

"Come over right after school." she decided.

"Sounds good to me." Jeremy agreed scarfing down the sandwich. When he was done, Jeremy left the house and returned to school.

"I cant believe we're letting your brother babysit with a girl here. His girlfriend no less. You do know what happens, when a couple babysits together right?" he asked.

"What happens?" she asked.

"They don't pay any attention to the kids. It's all about them." he said.

"Damon, Jeremy is my brother and Bonnie one of my best friends. And they've babysat together lots and the kids are still mostly unharmed. We're going out tonight." she said.

"Can we at least bring Aurora. She loves me unconditionally." he said.

"No. No kids." she said laying down the law.

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><p>When Aiden and Aurora's first birthday rolled around, they were dressed up in brand new outfits bought by Caroline and there were balloons strewn throughout the house. Everyone was there. Caroline and Tyler, Bonnie and Jeremy, Grayson and Miranda, Alaric and Jenna, Matt, and Stefan and Lexi. Both kids revelled under all the attention and when it came time for cake, Damon fished out his camera for the customary first attempt at eating cake. Aiden grinned widely and smashed his entire face into the cake, while Aurora looked at it uncertainly before sticking her finger in it and sucking the icing off. Her blue eyes glittered when she tasted the icing and dug her fingers into the cake and stuffed the entire handful into her mouth. She hummed while she ate and took another handful offering it to her dad. He looked at the mushed cake in her hand and shook his head.<p>

"You eat it. Daddy has his own." he said showing her the piece of cake beside him. She smiled and pushed the cake into her mouth. Neither of them were too sure about the ice cream, it was too cold. Once the cake was finished and the kids were cleaned up, they were brought into the living room for presents. Elena sat down on the floor with the kids with a smile on her face as she watched them attempt to rip into the paper. Damon stood back so he could photograph every gift being opened. There were a small mountain for each kids, and knew they were spoiled rotten. Refusing to have anyone help them, it took the better part of a half hour to get the presents done. And even with all the presents surrounding them, they were more fascinated with the wrapping paper on the floor.

"Say thank you." Elena said.

"Tank you." they said simultaneous. Everyone chuckled at their garbled attempt at thanking them. Elena got up and went to stand with her husband.

"I have no idea where we are going to put all these toys." she said staring at the toys covering almost every square inch of floor of the living room.

"I say we store some in the basement for when they break these ones." he suggested.

"Good idea. Because they will break them." she agreed. He leaned in and kissed her temple as they watched their kids play with the wrapping paper.  
>"They are such angels. You two have done good with them so far." Miranda said when she came to stand beside her daughter.<p>

"They are brats." Damon said.

"They may be, but you love them anyway." Miranda said smiling at her son in law.

"That's very true. I couldn't picture my life without my little family." he said holding Elena even closer to his side.

"It's only going to get better. Soon they're going to start talking back, and fighting with you and each other." Grayson said coming to stand beside his wife.

"They already fight with each other. Aiden likes pulling on Aurora's pigtails." she said.

"Well it's going to get worse. You're going to get it worse than you gave it to us." he reminded her.

"Oh good God, if my daughter comes home with a vampire boyfriend, or has a somewhat physical relationship with a vampire at seventeen, or gets married at eighteen, pregnant before she graduates, I will be very upset." he said his eyes widening at the thought.

"Good luck with that." Grayson said.

"Oh no, I will keep her locked up before any of that will ever happen." he said shaking his head.

"What ever happened to being the cool dad?" she asked laughing.

"That was before I realized she could possibly have as terrible taste as you did. Hooking up with a vampire, how insane do you get?" he asked.

"I am completely insane. But our daughter wont do that. You wont need to take such desperate measures." she assured him.

"What about Aiden? What if he becomes a womanizing, drinker, who has a problem with authority?" he asked referring to his old days.

"That will be your fault." she decided.

"It wont happen." Miranda stated.

"Exactly, because our son does have some of you in him too, so he wont be as bad as I was." he promised.

" I hope you're right, but I hope he gets lots of your traits. I hope he's strong like, you, caring, loving, passionate" she said kissing his cheek.

"God I hope he doesn't have my passion. That would cause us a lot of problems in the future. But I want Aurora to be just like you, with the exception of the vampire boyfriend, pregnant highschooler part." he said. She laughed and kissed him softly.

"We'll just have to wait and see." she said as they watched their kids play together on the floor.


	2. Year 2

This chapter isnt quite as good as the first one. but dont worry they'll get more fun as time goes on. the older the kids get the more stuff I can do with them. I already have a couple of the future ones written. Let me know what you think of this. Any ideas for future years are more than welcome. Read and review.

PS I own nothing, just my characters.

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><p>"Mommy what's this?" Aurora asked as she sat on the sink in the bathroom while Elena brushed her hair.<p>

"That's mommy's perfume." she said.

"What's this?" she asked.

"That's soap." she said.

"Where's daddy?" she asked looking around the room.

"He went for a drive with Aiden." she said.

"I wanna go for a drive with daddy." she whined.

"But daddy is already gone. Don't you want to stay here with me?" she asked her teary eyed little girl.

"I want daddy." she said pouting.

"You always want daddy." she said putting the little girl on the floor and following her out of the bathroom.

"I love my daddy." she said still crying slightly.

"I know you do. Daddy will be home soon. Do you need to go potty?" she asked the little girl.

"I want daddy to take me potty." she pouted. Elena smiled and pulled her phone out of her pocket texting Damon. She loved how much of a daddy's girl she was. It all evened out in the end because Aiden was a total mommy's boy.

"I want to go see mommy." Aiden screamed in the backseat.

"Buddy, we'll go home soon." he said.

"No. I want my mommy." he screamed. He glanced the phone when it vibrated in the console and smiled. It seemed they needed to trade kids, Aurora was demanding him and Aiden was demanding Elena. When he got home he got the little boy out of his car seat and put him on the ground, knowing he would demand to walk. Damon opened the door and the little boy stumbled through the door.

"Mommy! I find you mommy!" he called. Elena came downstairs when she heard his voice with Aurora in tow.

"Daddy! I need potty." she called out.

"Okay princess." he said taking the screaming little girl from her mother and taking her upstairs. When they came down a few minutes later there was a self satisfied look on Aurora's potty.

"Did she do it?" Elena asked.

"She did. She's such a good little munchkin." he said kissing the little girls chubby cheek.

"We should take then to the P-A-R-K." she said spelling it out.

"It is Saturday morning." he noted.

"Let's take them to the park and then we can stop and get ice cream on the way home." she said smiling.

"Now are we getting ice cream for the kids or are we just stopping because you want ice cream?"he asked raising his eyebrows at his wife.

"Fine, yes I want ice cream." she gave in rolling her eyes.

"Why don't we go get you dressed." Elena said looking down at Aiden who had stripped out of all his clothes.

"No!" he screamed.

"Come on Aiden. Lets get some pants on you." she said.

"No!" he screamed.

"Do you want to go to the park?" she asked knowing he would brighten up considerably at the word.

"Yes. I love the park." he mumbled.

"I know you do. Now let mommy get you redressed." she said sitting down on the floor and pulling the pants back on the toddler. When he was dressed they loaded the kids into the car and drove to the nearest park which was in the middle of town.

"They really need to build a park out here?" Damon mumbled as he did the speed limit the entire way to the park.

"We should think about buying a play centre for them." she noted.

"Why on earth would I buy one when I'm sure I'm capable of building one?" he asked.

"Have you ever built something in your life?" she asked raising her eyebrows.

"No, but that doesn't mean I cant." he stated.

"And you want to test that theory on our kids?" she asked.

"I guess not. You win." he decided.

"Good." she said satisfied.

"Aiden mine." Aurora screamed from the backseat.

"Give that back." Elena said without turning her head.

"No." Aiden said. Elena snapped her head back and saw the little pink unicorn in her sons hand. The toy clearly belonged to the little girl. Elena took the toy from him and handed it back to Aurora who smiled brightly at her mom. Aiden started crying at the loss of his toy so Elena handed him her phone to play with.

"I wanna play with mommy's phone." Aurora whined.

"No. Your brothers playing with that." Elena said pulling her sun glasses down to cover her eyes. When they pulled into the curb lane of the park he stopped the car and got out. Elena freed the kids from their car seats and held their hands as they walked towards the playground. When they got close enough to the little kids playground they released the kids hand and let them run. Damon took a hold of Elena's hand and laced their fingers together and walked behind the kids.

"They are too cute." he stated as they ran.

"We did good with them." she said her eyes glinting.

"I made them." he said pointing at them. Elena laughed as the kids made a bee line for the sand box. The kids sat down in their own little area and started digging. Elena sat down on the wooden edge of the sand box pulling Damon down with her.

"You two have beautiful babies." a women said as she walked through the park walking her dogs.

"Thank you Mrs Wilson." Elena called as she walked away.

"Oh Elena. I didn't recognize you. I haven't seen you since you were ten." she said walking over with her small dogs leading her.

"This is my fifth grade teacher Mrs Wilson." she told Damon. "Mrs Wilson this is my husband Damon." she said.

"Nice to meet you. But Elena dear you are only 20 years old and you have a husband and kids." she said worriedly.

"It's okay Mrs Wilson. We got married at 18 before I graduated, I was 8 months pregnant at graduation. Now I have two insanely adorable two year olds." she said smiling over her shoulder at the brown haired toddlers.

"They look like their father." Mrs Wilson noted.

"Aiden especially. I see a lot of me in Aurora except for her eyes." she said.

"They're beautiful. Congratulations. I better go, need to finish the walk with my babies." the older woman stated before rushing off.

"She was a wonderful teacher." Elena noted.

"She really disapproved of your status of wife and mother." he noted.

"That's just because I was supposed to go off and be a famous writer and a teacher." she said.

"Instead you're the wife of Damon Salvatore. Vampire. And best mother in the world." he said pressing a tender kiss to her temple.

"My life is good." she sighed.

"Mommy I want to swing." Aiden stated.

"Me too." Aurora shot in.

"Alright. I guess we're going to the swings." Elena said getting up and following the two running toddlers over to the swings. They placed them in the two toddler swings before giving them a gentle push.

"Mommy swing." Aiden said as he giggled.

"Alright." she said sitting on the swing. Damon moved to stand behind her and gave her a push.

"I wanna go back to the sandbox." Aiden said after a couple minutes.

"I wanna swing." Aurora shouted.

"I'll go with him you stay with her." Elena suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Damon said giving his daughter another push. Aiden ran over to the sandbox and saw there was another little girl playing in sand box with her mother sitting on the bench.

"Mommy you go sit down." Aiden said pointing to the bench. She smiled and went to sit beside the other mother on the bench. Aiden stepped into the sandbox and sat down beside the little girl.

"Hi." Elena said sitting down.

"Hello." she said before turning back to her book.

"I'm Elena Salvatore, it seems that our kids are getting along." she said hoping to strike up another conversation with another mother. She knew very few mothers and felt very isolated.

"Good to know." she said closing the book but refusing to look at Elena.

"What's your name?" she asked hoping for some conversation.

"Mary Donald's. Don't think I don't know about you and your family Mrs Salvatore." she said.

"What?" Elena asked worried.

"All you and your family are, are rich people who like slumming now and again with the less fortunate." she snarled.

"That's not what this is. My kids love this park and that's why we bring them here on weekends." Elena said defensively.

"Whatever you say. And besides you don't have a good reputation throughout town Mrs Salvatore. What kind of woman gets married and pregnant before she graduates from high school?" she asked.

"I couldn't care less about what people think." she said. Elena seen Damon and Aurora coming over, Damon no doubt listened to their entire conversation.

"Are we done here?" he asked Elena as he glared at the woman.

"Yeah. Let's go get ice cream." she said standing up. "It was nice to meet you Mary." she said before snatching Aiden out of the sand. Aurora grasped her daddy's hand tightly as they walked towards the ice cream stand on the other side of the park.

"That woman was horrible." he said using words that if the kids repeated it wouldn't be a bad thing.

"That's alright." she said.

"Mommy, can I play with her again?" Aiden asked his mom.

"I don't know. Why?" she asked.

"Because she's my girlfriend. I love her." he said his eyes wide. He spoke clearly and both vampires stopped for a moment.

"Oh its starting." Damon said shaking his head.

"Stop, its cute." she said.

"You love her. Why do you love her." she asked.

"She pretty like mommy." he said. Elena smiled and kissed the little boys head.

"What kind of ice cream do you want?" she asked.

"Chocolate." he said.

"Aurora?" she asked.

"Stawberry." she said.

"I'll go order. What do you want?" Damon asked.

"Cookie dough." she said grinning.

"I should have known that." he said shaking his head as he went up to order the ice cream. Elena was pleasantly surprised when she seen him pull out his wallet instead of compelling the poor worker. Damon was improving drastically at not compelling people for no reason. When he returned he handed the child's size strawberry cone and the child's size chocolate cone to the kids. He gave Elena her cookie dough after having a generous lick off of it. She glared at him while he offered her a taste of the Skor cone he had. She accepted the lick from her husbands cone as the kids devoured theirs.

"Oh it hurts." Aiden said clutching his head with one hand while his other one stayed tight around the cone. Elena laughed when she seen the expression on her sons face.

"He has a brain freeze." she said through her laughs. When the family was done, they drove back home and laid the kids down in their new beds. They had lowered the bed and took the railing off so they had big kid beds.

"So what now? I reckon we have an hour or so before they wake up." he asked.

"Let's go take a nap. They tired me out today." she said pulling her husband along with her to their bedroom.


	3. Year 3

"Wow, a good nights sleep. Haven't slept that late since they were born." Damon said when they were privileged enough to get to sleep until 9 am.

"We better go check on them." Elena stated wrapping her robe around her body and following her husband out of their bedroom. When they got into the two three year olds room they seen them sitting up in their big kid beds playing with their favourite stuffed animals.

"Good morning." Elena said to her bright eyed three year olds.

"Morning mommy." Aiden said smiling brightly.

"Morning baby." she said walking over to hug her little guy. He pressed a wet, sloppy kiss on his moms cheek.

"Are you guys hungry?" Damon asked from the doorway, just enjoying seeing his wife and babies together. It always managed to make his still heart soar.

"Yes!" they both cheered happily. The happy parents took their precocious three year olds down to the kitchen and placed them in the booster seats. The booster seats were on opposite sides of the table to ensure there was no fighting at the dinner table. The three year olds spent 15 of the possible 24 hours a day fighting which was the norm for twins. Time outs were a frequent happening in the Salvatore household.

"We should take them on a trip somewhere." Damon suggested.

"That's a good idea. Where should we take them?" she asked.

"They would love a zoo. They are in a big animal phase right now." Elena suggested.

"San Diego zoo." he suggested his eyes glistening excitedly.

"I love the San Diego Zoo, I haven't been there since I was 8." she said excited.

"I think you're going to be more excited than they are." he said smiling broadly.

"I am." she told him grinning.

"I'm going to book flights, I'll be right back." he said rushing into the office.

"Did you hear that? You are going to the San Diego zoo with mommy and daddy." Elena said to her three year olds who were overly focused on their breakfast. There was a knock at the door and Elena shouted for whoever was there to come in.

"It's just us dear." Miranda said as her and Grayson walked in.

"Hey." she said sipping from a cup of coffee.

"Good morning. How are my grand babies?" Miranda asked pressing a kiss to each kids cheek.

"They slept in this morning. Damon and I were able to sleep in until 9." Elena said beaming.

"That's good. Where is Damon?" Miranda asked.

"Booking flights." Elena said smiling.

"Where are you going?" Grayson asked taking a seat at the table between the kids.

"We're taking the brats to the San Diego zoo." Elena said internally jumping for joy.

"They'll love that. The little angels love animals, kind of like their mother did when she was their age." Miranda stated staring at Aiden and Aurora with an adoring look on her face.

"I'm so excited. I haven't been there since I was eight." she reminded them.

"Now is this trip for you, or for the kids?" Grayson asked raising his eyebrows.

"It's for us as a family." Elena noted.

"You got the kid's passports?" Miranda questioned.

"No. Crap! Baby we have a problem!" Elena shouted. Damon emerged a couple minutes later with a small smile on his face.

"There is no problem Elena. Just you wait and see. We're going to San Diego on Friday." he told her.

"Damon! Friday? That's not enough time to get them passports!" Elena exclaimed jumping up.

"No need. Baby compulsion is an amazing thing. We have our passports, we just have to compel them to forget about Aiden and Aurora's." he explained.

"This is a bad idea. I'm not comfortable using compulsion to get what I want from people." she said shaking her head.

"It's okay, I'll do it. I have no issues compelling people." he stated shrugging his shoulders.

"This is a bad idea." Elena said pacing back and forth at almost vampire speed.

"I'll make you a deal, lets do this, this one time. When we get back we'll get to work on getting the kids their passports." he bargained. She thought over his deal for a few moments, but gave in only because she really wanted to go back to the San Diego zoo.

"Fine." she said giving in.

"Good." he said leaning in to kiss her lips softly. "We're going to San Diego." he cheered.

"Zoo?" Aiden asked.

"Yes a zoo buddy." Damon stated.

"With animals?" Aiden asked.

"Yep. Lots of animals." Damon told his son.

"I love animals. I love monkeys." Aiden stated.

"I love lions and tigers." Aurora shot in.

"We'll see all of those."Damon assured his kids.

When Friday rolled around the family of four drove to the airport and got checked in for their flight. When their number was called they quickly boarded the plane. Compelling the security and customs people was easy.

"We're going to fly in an airplane." Aiden asked as he was cuddled on his moms lap.

"Yep." Damon answered.

"We going to be really high?" Aiden asked.

"Yes." Damon answered.

"Cool." Aiden said beaming. Aurora cuddled up into her dad's chest clutching him tightly.

"If we could get everyone to fasten their seat belts. We will be taking off shortly." the flight attendant instructed. Damon help on to Aurora tightly.

"Daddy I'm scared." she mumbled into his shirt.

"That's okay. I've got you." he told her kissing her hair. She nestled deeper into his arms while Aiden said down on his moms lap with a massive smile on his face. The kid was a daredevil, he wasn't afraid of anything. Aurora whimpered when the engines started up and the plane started moving. He held onto her tighter while while plane made its ascent. Part way through the ascent Aiden freaked and buried his head into his moms chest. She rubbed his back while she held him tightly. When the plan was at full altitude he pulled out and sat down on her lap.

"Are we flying mommy?" Aiden asked.

"We are. We'll be in San Diego soon." Elena said getting comfortable in their first class seats. Aurora had fallen asleep against her dads chest as he continued to stroke her back to keep her calm. When they landed they got off the plane and rented a car.

"Hotel first. Freshen up, find something for the brats to eat. Then bed. Tomorrow will be the zoo." Damon suggested.

"Sounds good to me. I'm kinda tired." Elena admitted.

"Okay. Off we go." he said loading the kids into the car in their booster seats. When they got to their hotel room they practically dragged their two grumpy three year olds into the lobby.

"I have a reservation under Salvatore." he stated as Aurora threw a fit on the floor by his legs.

"I wanna go home! I wanna go home." she screamed over and over again.

"In a couple days sweetheart." he said picking her up and holding her tiny fists in one hand so she would stop swinging them wildly.

"Ah yes right here Mr Salvatore. Here are your room keys." he said handing Damon a small folder.

"Thank you." he said taking the keys.

"Enjoy your stay Mr Salvatore." the man said.

"We will." he said gesturing for Elena to walk towards the elevator. When they got to their room they looked at the two beds across from each other.

"How do you want to do this?" he asked.

"I'll sleep with Aiden, you sleep with Aurora in the other bed." she suggested.

"That's probably best although I will miss sleeping beside you." he muttered.

"Likewise. We should maybe just order some fruit or something from room service for the brats." she said. He nodded and grabbed the phone. When dinner was done and the kids were washed and changed.

"Good night." Elena said to her husband from across the room.

"Good night. I love you." he said from the other bed.

"I love you to." she whispered.

The next afternoon when they were walking through the zoo, they were stopped at the monkey cage.

"Hey look its you." Damon said ruffling his sons hair. Aiden proceeded to make a monkey sound causing his mom to laugh.

"Are there bears in here" Aurora asked.

"I'm afraid of bears." Aiden said.

"Do bears eat monkeys?" Aurora asked curiously.

"I don't know." Damon said.

"Bears eat monkeys? I'm a monkey! Daddy is a bear going to eat me?" Aiden panicked.

"Don't worry buddy a bear wont eat you." Damon assured him. The family spent the entire day at the zoo before finally retuning to that hotel room with tired kids. When the weekend was over they returned to Mystic Falls and life went back to normal while they started planning their next family trip.


	4. Year 4

"I cant do this. Damon I cant do it." Elena stated firmly standing by the front door.

"Baby, they're four. It's time for playschool." he insisted.

"Can we just home school them? I don't want to take them to school and leave them there. It's too soon." she begged.

"No. We just have to do it. It's only twice a week for a couple hours. I'm sure you'll do fine." he insisted.

"Damon, they're too young." she begged her husband.

"They're four." he corrected her. Her lower lips pushed out and she looked remarkably like Aurora when she was pouting.

"I don't want them to leave my side." she whined.

"Come here." he said opening his arms for her. She laid her head on his chest and he held her. "They will be fine." he assured her.

"Yes they will. Because they're not going." she said firmly.

"Elena..." he sighed.

"Daddy... ready for school." Aiden said walking into the room with his Disney backpack on his pack and his shoes on.

"Look at him. He's ready for school. He's excited." Damon said.

"Where is Aurora?" she asked.

"Getting her backpack." he said in his soft four year old voice. She nodded and smiled when Aurora walked in with her bouncy brown pig tails and Disney Princess backpack.

"I ready." she said grinning.

"Look at them. Look at how excited they are. Let's do this for them." Damon insisted.

"Fine. We better go." Elena said resigned to her fate.

"It's not going to be as bad as you think." he assured his wife.

"It's going to be worse. I've never left them with a stranger before. It's always been my parents, or another member of our family." she said.

"It's going to be fine." he told her even though he was feeling a certain amount of terror at leaving his kids with someone he didn't know. He needed to be the strong one in this situation. Elena was taking it hard enough for both of them.

"Let's go." Elena said picking up her purse and taking the kids hands. Damon grabbed the keys and followed the three out to the car. He helped Elena put them in the car and slid into the front seat. In the backseat the kids were singing "the wheels on the bus" it was hilarious.

"Are you okay?" Damon asked seeing his wife's grave face next to him.

"I'm fine." she said a little too quickly.

"They will come home. It's only a couple hours. We can go get groceries or something. Or go have breakfast or lunch at the Grill. The possibilities are endless. A couple hours without them. You have to admit you're at least somewhat excited." he told her, taking a hold of her hand and squeezing it.

"I love it when someone takes them for a couple hours. I just don't like that its someone I don't know." Elena sighed.

"You are the strongest person I know. You'll survive this in spectacular fashion." he assured her bringing her hand up to his lips to kiss softly. She took a deep breath as he pulled into the parking lot at the play school they had chosen.

"We're at school." Aiden cheered.

"Yay." Aurora cheered along with him.

"Look how happy they are. Maybe it will always be like this." he mused.

"Unlikely." Elena said pulling Aurora out of the car and taking the precocious four year old by the hand. The happy parents walked into the school and the teacher met them at the door.

"This must be Aiden and Aurora." she said happily, before getting down to their level to greet them. "My name is Mrs Stevens." she said smiling at the four years olds.

"Hello I am Aiden." Aiden said.

"Hello buddy." she said standing up to face Elena and Damon who still had tight holds on their kids hands.

"Why don't they go play with the other kids while we talk for a moment." Mrs Stevens suggested.

"Do you want to play, or stay here with mommy?" Elena asked the kids.

"Play." they cheered. Damon let go of Aiden's hand and he waited for Aurora who was still trying to get free from her moms hand.

"Elena..." Damon said.

"Oh." she said releasing the little girls hand and clasping her hands in front of her.

"Do you want to come and have a seat in my office?" Mrs Stevens asked.

"No. We're fine right here." Elena said her eyes darting to keep an eye on the kids. Damon reached across and took one of her hands in his lacing their fingers together.

"First children going off to school?" she asked knowingly.

"Uh huh. You better treat them right. They are special." Elena said firmly.

"Mrs Salvatore. The kids will all be treated with the utmost respect and kindness." she said in a placating manner.

"Do not placate me. I want you to tell me in all honesty that my kids will be fine here. They will be safe." she said.

"They will be fine." she assured Elena. Damon looked at Elena curiously as something dawned in her eyes.

"You will treat my children with respect and you will make sure they are safe from all harm. No harm will come to them during the couple hours they are here. Make sure no one bullies them. I want my children to come back home with only happy memories of this place." Elena said compelling the innocent woman. Damon raised an eyebrow as the teacher repeated back everything Elena had told her.

"Great. We'll be back to pick them up at 12." she said of the four hour playschool class.

"Have a great day Mr and Mrs Salvatore. Aiden and Aurora will be in great hands." she said watching them leave. Elena sighed in relief when they got into the car.

"Compulsion? Really Elena?" he asked humour evident in her eyes.

"My children's well being is the most important." she said without any trace of remorse in her.

"Now you know how I feel about compulsion." he told her.

"I suppose I do." she said giving in.

"Watching you become all mama bear on the teacher was amusing baby. It was so amazing." he assured her kissing her softly.

"We should go get breakfast." she said breaking the kiss. He smiled at her and put the car in gear driving them over to the Grill.

When they walked in Elena's parents were seated in a booth.  
>"Let's go sit with them." she said walking hand in hand with Damon over to the table.<p>

"Good morning. How was the first day of school?" Miranda asked knowingly.

"she took it real well." Damon said smirking. Elena kicked him across the table and he winced.

"What did you do?" Grayson asked amused.

"I may have used compulsion to make sure the teacher treats Aiden and Aurora with the utmost care." she admitted not sounding remorseful at all.

"Elena..." Grayson said not approvingly.

"Believe me Elena compelling her was in the teachers best interest. I can almost guarantee that we would still be there if she hadn't compelled her. Elena wasn't going anywhere." Damon told them.

"Fine. I'll approve this time only because it was for my daughters mental health." he said. Damon ordered them both a coffee and some waffles when the waitress came around as Grayson and Miranda ate their bacon and eggs.

"What are you going to do with your four hours of alone time?" Miranda asked.

"Go buy groceries." Elena answered.

"You are going to spend your alone time buying groceries? Not that I'm complaining?" Grayson asked his eyebrows almost touching his hairline.

"Yes." Elena said.

"You are married young. Damon is 24 and you are 18. and you are spending your alone time grocery shopping. Forgive me if I don't believe you." Grayson said almost snorting.

"We are. Have you ever grocery shopped with them before?" Elena asked crossing her arms.

"No, how bad can they be?" Grayson asked.

"Terrible. Especially now. When they were little it was so easy. You sat them in the cart and went about your business. Now they are terrible. I choose not to do anything with them. We have to get food after we leave here, or else they are going to starve for the next little while. Romance takes a back seat to sanity." she said.

"It's true. How ever much I would love to be focusing on the romance, she is right." Damon agreed.

"Very mature of you." Grayson said admirably. Elena smiled as she dug into her waffles eating every bite. When they were both done Damon left enough money on the table to cover his and Elena's meals, along with Grayson and Miranda's before standing up.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes. Let's get the shopping over with." she said taking his outstretched hand. Grayson and Miranda watched them leave and smiled after them.

"They are good parents." Miranda said happily.

"It's surprising really. But they are. Aiden and Aurora come first." Grayson agreed.

"God. Grocery shopping sucks without them too." Damon whined as they walked down the aisles and picked up everything they needed. The entire shopping trip took almost two hours as they couldn't go through at vampire speed. That might bring up some unnecessary questions.

"As soon as we leave here, we can go pick up the brats." Elena said. Damon nodded and they finished their shopping before heading back to the school. They walked into the classroom just as they were singing the goodbye song. Aiden and Aurora were easy to spot.

"Which one is yours?" another mother asked.

"The ones on the end." Elena said pointing out her twins.

"They're cuties." she admired.

"They look like my husband." she said leaning into his side.

"Mine is the little boy on the other end. His name is Cody." she said proudly.

"Aiden and Aurora." Elena said just as proudly. When the teacher said they could leave the students all ran over to grab their backpacks and meet up with their parents.

"How was school?" Elena asked the kids who came to an immediate stop in front of their parents.

"Fun. Can I come back tomorrow?" Aiden asked, as Aurora nodded enthusiastically.

"You can come back Friday." she told them.

"No, I want to come back tomorrow." Aurora wailed.

"I bought you cocoa puffs." Elena said trying to stop a full fledged breakdown.

"Yay." she said jumping up and down. Satisfied, Elena and Damon each took a hand and led them back out to the car to prepare for Friday when they got to do it all over again.


	5. Year 5

"Mommy! Daddy! It's time for school!" the five year old said leaping on the bed.

"Wake up." Aiden yelled from the floor on his dads side of the bed while Aurora bounced in between her parents.

"Five more minutes." Damon groaned into his pillow.

"No. Time for school!" Aiden shouted.

"Fine. I'll get breakfast. You get them dressed." Damon said as he pulled himself out of bed and walked downstairs to make breakfast and brew a pot of coffee. Coffee was essential to parents of five year olds, even vampire ones.

"Knock knock." Stefan and Lexi said walking into the kitchen.

"Hi." he said.

"Are you ready for kindergarten?" Stefan asked.

"We're ready. Mama bear is in hibernation. Elena is going to be on her best behaviour." he said surely.

"What about papa bear?" Stefan asked knowingly.

"I will be fine. I am the cool dad and I will not freak out over something as simple as kindergarten." he stated as he poured one bowl of Capn crunch and one bowl of coca pebbles.

"Breakfast of champions." Stefan said looking at the cereal.

"They like it." he said as he waited for the brats to come downstairs. "And if they like it, then I like it. It keeps the brats happy which is good. Happy brats are better than angry brats." he said.

"I suppose they are." Stefan agreed as Lexi laughed.

"You know I never ever pictured you as the parenting type in all the years I've known you." she said honestly.

"It's because I wasn't the parenting time back then. Even now, I'm sure I'm somehow screwing up their lives, be it with crappy breakfast cereal, or with the fact that I'm a vampire. It's all going to affect them someday." he said as he heard the light footsteps on the stairs signalling one of the kids coming downstairs.

"Uncle Stefan, Aunt Lexi!" Aiden shouted as he ignored his dad completely and ran over to hug Stefan and Lexi.

"Hey buddy." Stefan said hugging the boy back. Lexi got her hug from him before Aiden ran over to the chair and sat down to eat his breakfast.

"Hey, what about me?" Damon demanded offended that his son just ignored him.

"Oh, hi dad." he said before focusing on the Capn crunch cereal.

"See look at that." he exclaimed when he heard the other set of footsteps on the stairs. Aurora marched right into the kitchen with her dress and pig tails. It was clear in the way she was dressed that Aurora won the battle for clothes that morning. She was wearing a bright pink dress with a purple shirt underneath, with green shoes and mismatched ponytails in her pig tails. She had almost every colour of the rainbow in her outfit but she looked adorable.

"How do I look?" she asked standing in the open doorway of the kitchen.

"Adorable." Damon answered.

"Mommy hates my outfit." Aurora explained, her lower lip jutting out a bit.

"I'm sure she doesn't hate it." Damon said trying to appease both his girls. Aurora smiled and walked over to her dad before tugging on his jacket.  
>"What?" he asked.<p>

"Hug." she stated opening her arms. He grinned and dropped down to her level to hug her tightly. She kissed his cheek before getting out of his embrace to eat her breakfast.

"At least one of my kids likes me." he whispered.

"That was cute." Lexi agreed. He grinned and watched the kids eat. They were situated on opposite sides of the table, because even now they couldn't sit through one meal without annoying each other.

"I hate her outfit. She looks like an orphan. Maybe you can convince her to change." Elena said walking into the kitchen with a scowl on her face.

"She looks cute." he defended.

"Damon, she is wearing a pink dress, purple shirt green shoes, blue tights, and orange and yellow pony tails. Not one colour matches." she whined.

"She's five, she can pull it off." he told her rubbing a soothing hand down her back.

"Fine. Are we ready for the first day of kindergarten. This is so much easier than last year when we took them to playschool. I think I can even get through it without compelling the teacher." Elena said confidently.

"I'm ready. I have no issues in getting rid of them for six hours." he said grinning.

"Are you guys ready for school?" Elena asked the kids.

"Yay." they both cheered. She grinned and gathered up their backpacks ready for school. When they were done eating and cleaned up, the family walked outside to the car. They got buckled into their booster seats and Damon got into the car. When he pulled up in front of the school a sharp feeling of terror ripped through him. He swallowed it knowing that it was unreasonable. He was just dropping his kids off at school, nothing would happen here.

"Are you ready for this?" Elena asked.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" he scoffed, hiding his earlier terror behind his Damon Salvatore mask.

"Don't think I didn't see that flash of terror in your eyes a minute ago." she said as they followed the kids into the school.

"You're seeing things." he said as he held the door open for her. Elena led them into the kindergarten room and immediately the teacher walked over to them.

"Well hello there. You must be Aiden and Aurora Salvatore." the kindergarten teacher said sinking down to her knees in front of the excited kids.

"Uh huh." Aiden said as Aurora stood somewhat shyly behind her brother.

"Why don't you two go play while I talk to your parents for a minute." she said.

"Come Aurora." Aiden said as he pulled his sister by the hand. She nodded and turned behind her to make sure her parents were still there. She had been fine in the car but now that she was actually there, she was scared.

"Hello Mrs Rawlings." Elena said smiling.

"Elena Gilbert? Wow you sure grew up fast." the teacher exclaimed, looking at Elena for the first time.

"Perks of growing up in Mystic Falls. The teacher you had in kindergarten is likely to be the teacher your kids have in kindergarten too." Elena said as Damon's eyes darted after the kids. His protective nature coming into play. Elena squeezed his hand making sure he didn't go anywhere. She could only imagine his reaction is a kid stole a toy from Aiden or Aurora. He would flip.

"Wow, so Aiden and Aurora are yours?" she asked glancing at her.

"Yep. Got pregnant and married at 18. I was eight months pregnant at graduation." she said.

"Well, how did your parents react to that?" she asked.

"Well not well at first. I started dating my husband Damon, knowing he was forbidden. My dad made me choose, I chose Damon, and we got married. We were married for a while then I got pregnant. They've come around since then." she said.

"Congratulations." she said hugging Elena. The hug was awkward because Elena still refused to let go of Damon's hand. She was sure her grip on his hand was keeping him grounded.

"Well we better go. School is dismissed at 3?" she asked.

"Yes. Have a good day. I'll take good care of your kids." she said.

"I know you will. You took good care of me in kindergarten, I'm sure you'll do the same for my babies." she told her certainly. They started walking away when Aurora ran over to them, wrapping her arms around her dads legs.  
>"Don't go." she begged with big fat tears rolling down her face.<p>

"We have to sweetheart." Elena said kneeling down so she was at her level.

"Daddy will you stay with me?" she asked him with big blue tear filled eyes.

"Daddy has to come home with me." Elena said knowing she couldn't rely on Damon to say no to her when she looked like that.

"I wanna come home with daddy." she said on the verge of a breakdown.

"You have to stay and go to school. Remember how excited you were?" Elena asked.

"Come on Elena, let's take her home with us." Damon begged. He hated seeing his girl cry.

"No. She has to stay. We have to go. We'll come back to pick you up in a few hours. Stay with Aiden, he'll protect you." Elena said needing to stay strong. Damon stayed strong for her last year, now she needed to stay strong for him.

"I don't wanna stay." she cried stomping her feet on the floor.

"Go play. Mrs Rawlings will take good care of you." Elena promised. Aurora sat down on the floor and started crying. Aiden walked over and sat down next to his sister, and hugged her.

"Aiden will take care of her. Let's go." Elena said gently pushing Damon out of the room. "We'll be back at three." Elena said to Mrs Rawlings.

When they got home, Damon sat down on the couch right beside the phone. It was clear he intended to wait for the phone to ring, or for three o'clock. Whichever came first. Elena wanted to make the most of their time alone together. She sat down next to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek before kissing down towards his neck. He stiffened and pulled away.

"No. I have to wait until three o'clock." he said.

"Damon, she's going to be fine. We have six hours. You can't honestly be planning on sitting here for six hours." she exclaimed.

"We left my little girl crying in a school that she obviously doesn't want to go to. Romance will have to wait until I know she is okay." he said.

"Every child acts like that they're first day of kindergarten. She'll be happy when we pick her up after school. And she'll be excited to go back tomorrow." Elena said.

"I'm worried about her." Damon sighed.

"I know you are, and I find it completely amazing. I love you for it. But please we have six hours of time together. Alone. Let's not waste it." she begged.

"Fine." he said turning his head so he could kiss her.

When three o'clock came around Damon and Elena were at the school waiting in the hallway for the kids to be done.

"See you survived that quite well. Although it did take lots of distracting on my part to keep you sane during that time." she said rubbing his tense back. When the classroom door opened they walked in to await the kids. They watched at Aiden gathered up his stuff with a smile on his face and as Aurora finished building a sandcastle in the sand station with a little boy her age.

"Look at them. They're so happy." Elena said.

"Fine. You were right." he agreed kissing her temple.

"Mommy. Daddy." she said running over to them and throwing her arms around their legs.

"Hey sweetie. How was your day?" Damon asked wanting to make sure she had a good day.

"Fun. Can I come back tomorrow?" she asked.


	6. Year 6

"Hello, my name is Lilah. What's your name?" the little blonde girl said to Aurora on the first day of grade one.

"My name is Aurora Charlotte Salvatore. It's nice to meet you." she said holding out her hand for the little girl to shake. Lilah laughed and took Aurora's hand.

"My daddy shakes hands with everyone he sees." Lilah said.

"My daddy does to." Aurora responded.

"Do you want to play with me?" Lilah asked.

"Sure. What do you want to play?" Aurora asked looking around the playground where they were spending time for recess. Aiden was off with his friend Jordan, playing super heroes.

"Want to play princesses. You can be Princess Aurora." Lilah offered.

"That's my favourite game." Aurora said grinning. The two little girls ran off to an open spot on the grass and started playing princesses. They played until the bell rang when the teacher ushered them back into their classroom.

At lunch time, the girls sat together and ate their lunch.

"My mommy is a teacher. What is your mommy's job?" Lilah asked as she took a bite out of her sandwich.

"My mommy doesn't work. She takes care of me and my brother." Aurora said taking a sip of her juice box.

"My daddy is a salesman. What is your daddy?" Lilah asked.

"My daddy works for the Founders Council. I don't know what that is." she admitted.

"Do you want to be my best friend?" Lilah asked.

"Yes. I always wanted a best friend." Aurora said grinning at her friend.

When the school day was over Damon and Elena were waiting at the classroom door waiting to Aiden and Aurora.

"Mommy, daddy guess what?" Aurora squealed when she ran over to her mom and dad.

"What sweetie?" Elena asked.

"I have a best friend. Her name is Lilah. There she is." she said proudly.

"Good for you sweetie. She looks like a nice girl." Elena said.

"She's my best friend. I want to have a play date with her." she said, her big blue eyes sparkling. When she was happy like that she looked just like her dad. Their eyes sparkled in the same way. It was amazing. Both sets of blue eyes always made her melt into a massive pile of goo.

"Well we'll meet her parents sometime and then we'll make a plan for that." she said.  
>"Okay. Lilah where are you mommy and daddy?" Aurora asked when Lilah walked over.<p>

"They'll be here in a minute." she said hugging Aurora. Elena smiled and leaned her head on her husbands. "Aren't they cute?" she asked.

"I'm glad she made a friend so soon." he murmured.

"There's my mommy and daddy." Lilah said pointing as her mom and dad came into view.

"Hey sweetie, how was school?" her mom said.

"It was amazing. This is my best friend Aurora Salvatore." she said pulling Aurora over to her friend.  
>"Well. Best friend. That's great sweetie." she said.<p>

"Hi, I'm Aurora. This is my mommy and daddy. I really want to have a play date with Lilah." Aurora said cutting right to the point.

"Hi, I'm Elena, and this is my husband Damon. It's nice to meet you." Elena said.

"It's nice to meet you too. I'm Kathy Jones and this is my husband David." she said.

"It's seems our daughters want to hang out." Elena said smiling.

"So it would seem." Kathy said.

"Mommy please. Please please. Can we play today?" Lilah begged her mom as Aurora did the same.

"If you guys want, you can all come over. I'll make a pot of coffee, we can sit and have that while the girls play for a while." Elena offered.

"That sounds fine. Shall we follow you home?" Kathy said.

"Sounds good to me." Elena said as Damon went off to gather up Aiden who was still playing with his friend from kindergarten.

"I don't wanna go." he whined.

"Too bad. It's time to go home." he said pulling him by the arm.

When they all got to Damon and Elena's house, they all walked inside.

"Wow, your house is bigger than a castle." Lilah exclaimed.

"I love it." Aurora said.

"Your mommy and daddy must be rich." she commented.

"Can I play video games?" Aiden asked.

"No, you can go do something else. No TV until after dinner." Elena said walking into the kitchen.

"Can I have a snack?" he asked.

"You can have an apple. Sit down, and I'll cut one up for you." she said.

"Can I have an apple too?" Aurora asked.

"Don't you want to play with your friend?" Elena asked.

"Yeah. I'll wait until supper." she said taking Lilah's hand and pulling her to the stairs. "Come, I'll show you my room." Aurora said pulling her to the stairs.

"Can I get you anything, other than coffee?" Elena asked while she was cutting up an apple.

"Coffee is fine with us." Kathy said.

"You're more than welcome to stay for dinner too." Elena offered.

"Oh, we don't want to impose." Kathy said shaking her head.

"You're not. I have lots of food." she said smiling.

"Okay. I'm sure the girls would love that." Kathy said smiling. Elena walked into the kitchen and grabbed four coffee cups.

"Do you need help baby?" Damon called.

"I'm fine." Elena replied carrying out four cups and the pot of coffee.

"Here let me." he said taking the cups from her not wanting her to drop them.

"You guys seem awfully young to have 6 year olds." David said glancing at the two of them.

"We get that a lot. I got pregnant at 18." she said.

"Oh. Well its still not really adding up. My niece is 18 and you don't look much older than her." he said staring at her.

"Um..." Elena said.

"My wife and I don't want to ruin anything. Our truth is likely to ruin any chance of a blossoming friendship between Lilah and Aurora. We won't chance that." Damon said trying not to give anything away.

"Just tell us. We're likely to think the worst, unless you just tell us." Kathy said clutching her husbands hand. Elena glanced worriedly at her husband and he nodded his head. She nodded silently telling him to take the reins. Damon knew if it went south he could always compel them to forget about it all.

"First, how much about our towns history do you know?" he asked them.

"I know it was founded by the Lockwood, Forbes, and Salvatore families." Kathy said.

"Okay, so this is going to be a bigger shock to you than you were thinking it would be." he sighed running a hand through his hair.

"What is it? What do you and this towns history have to do with anything?" David asked.

"Okay, I'm just going to say it, and if you have any questions, then we'll answer them." he said.

"Okay. That sounds like the best bet." David said stiffly.

"My wife and I are vampires. But before you freak out and take your kid with you. Just know that we do not attack people. We drink from blood bags and it keeps us strong." he said.

"What about Aurora and Aiden?" she asked fearfully.

"Human. That right there is a testament to how safe we are. Our kids are completely human. My job at the Council is keeping the town safe from vampires. So we are not a danger to you, I just don't want you to take Lilah away from Aurora." Damon said sitting down with his hands clasped in front of him.

"Uh, wow. This is so much to take in." Kathy said as David sat ashen beside her.

"Can I tell you a secret?" Aurora asked Lilah.

"Yeah." she said smiling.  
>"My mommy and daddy are vampires." Aurora whispered.<p>

"Really? Like real vampires? With fangs?" Lilah asked intrigued.

"Yeah. They drink blood." Aurora said disgusted.

"Is it yucky to watch" Lilah asked.

"They drink it from coffee cups. But its so cool." she said grinning.

"Wow. Can I see their fangs?" Lilah asked.

"We can ask them. Mommy and daddy don't like showing their fangs to us. They think it will scare us. But I know my mommy and daddy would never hurt us." Aurora said.

"Can we ask them?" Lilah asked hopefully.

"Okay." Aurora said getting up and ushered Lilah out of the room.

"Okay. So don't be offended. But you don't look like vampires." Kathy said and David nodded beside her.

"You mean, pale faced, no sunlight... the glorified TV version of vamps?" he asked laughing.

"Yeah. I mean you came out in sunlight to pick up the kids. I smell garlic in the kitchen. And you don't have fangs." she said embarrassed.

"I love garlic. We have rings to protect us from the sun. And our fangs only come out when we're feeding, or in cases of extreme emotion." he said.

"Daddy can you show Lilah your fangs? She wants to see them." Aurora said running into the dining room where the adults were seated.

"Uh..." he said his eyes wide at the eager little girl in front of him.

"Can you guarantee you wont hurt anyone?" Kathy asked.

"Yes. I've been a vampire since 1864. I have remarkable control over my instincts." he said.

"Okay. I'm interested to see them too." she said. Elena squeezed his arm telling him that its okay.

"Alright." he said as he vamped out in front of them.

"Cool." Lilah said when she seen his fangs, and the veins out around his eyes.

"Wow. Well we believe you now." Kathy said intrigued at his visage. He felt the fangs retract and his face go back to normal.

"That was so cool." Lilah said.

"I'm going to get dinner. Aurora at the table." Elena said getting up and walking into the kitchen.

"I'll help you." Damon said getting up and walking into the kitchen.

"Thank you." she said as they got everything ready to serve.

When dinner was finished and Lilah and her parents were getting ready to leave, Damon and Elena followed them to the door.  
>"Are you still going to let them be friends?" Elena asked.<p>

"Yes. I don't feel any danger towards you. And I think she would be safe here." Kathy said.

"She will be. I can promise you that." Elena vowed.

"Have a good night." Kathy said as she and her family left. When they were gone, they shut and locked the door before heading into the living room where the kids were watching Bambi.

"Some on munchkins... bedtime." Damon said.

"Aw do we have to?" Aiden and Aurora asked at the same time.

"Yes you do. Bedtime." he said waiting for them.

"Fine." they said as they walked up the stairs to bed.


	7. Year 7

At the end of yet another day of grade 2, Aurora ran up to her dad who was waiting for her to be finished.

"Daddy, can Lilah come over?" she asked her dad doing her best impression of puppy dog.

"Not today. Aiden is at home sick." Damon said instantly feeling terrible for upsetting his little girl.

"Please daddy." she begged.

"Not today." he said again trying to be strong.

"Daddy." she whined with her lower lip jutting out.

"Fine princess. Lilah can come over." Damon sighed shaking his head.

"Yay!" Cheered the little girl, who immediately ran over to her best friend to tell her the news. Damon sighed shaking his head, he knew that eventually he would have to learn how to say no to her. The two girls climbed into the backseat of Elena's SUV. Damon missed the days where he could drive his Camaro wherever he wanted. The entire way home the car was filled with the sounds of little girls chattering about barbies and princesses. He was beyond relieved when they pulled up in front of the house and they immediately jumped out.

"Honey we're home." Damon called when he walked in the front door.

"Well look at this, Lilah is here again." Elena said with her hands on her hips.

"I tried." he stated.

"It might be a good idea to say no every once in a while. I never expected the big bad Damon Salvatore to give into the demands of a seven year old human." Elena laughed.

"It's not my fault. She's evil. She's too cute for her own good. Her puppy dog eyes are more effective than vervain, stakes and fire combined." he said.

"This is great. Damon Salvatore's weakness in a 7 year old girl. Can't wait to tell Stefan and Ric." Elena said.

"They would understand. They've been subjected to her evil before too." he said.

"Do you want to play barbies?" Aurora asked her friend.

"Sure." Lilah said. Aurora went to her closet to dig out the bin of barbies, and dragged it out. She opened the lid and dumped the entire bucket on the floor. Lilah immediately dug in and picked up the princess Aurora doll.

"That's mine!" Aurora shouted.

"But you always play with her!" Lilah shouted back.

"That's 'cause she is mine and has my name!" Aurora argued.

"That doesn't matter!" Lilah argued back.

"Yes it does!" Aurora yelled.

"I want the doll!" Lilah cried.

"Well you cant have it!" Aurora shouted.

"I wont play with you anymore if I cant have the doll!" Lilah shouted.

"If you don't give me the doll I will tell my mommy and daddy on you!" Aurora yelled.

"I wanna go home! I don't wanna play with you anymore!" Lilah cried.

"Fine go home!" Aurora yelled.

Damon walked into Aurora's room with a questioning glance. "What in the world is going on up here?"

"Aurora wont let me play with the Aurora doll!" Lilah yelled at the same time as Aurora yelled: "Lilah wont give me my Princess Aurora doll back!"

"Girls calm down! Aurora let Lilah play with the doll this one time." Damon tried to calm them down.

"No! I wanna go home!" Lilah yelled.

"I don't want to let her play with it! It's mine!" Aurora shouted. Damon put his hands over his ears wishing Elena would have came up instead of him.

"Okay come on Lilah we will phone your parents. Aurora…" He said as Aurora was giving him the puppy dog eyes again. "Aurora clean…" He tried to say. "Clean up this mess, and stay here till I get back!" He said as he closed his eyes so he couldn't see the expression on her face.

"Daddy no!" Aurora cried.

"Aurora yes." Damon said as him and Lilah backed out of the room.

"You did very good up there Damon, you were very strong. I am very proud of you!" Elena congratulated him with a wide grin on her face.

"I would have paid to see you deal with that." Damon stated before picking up the phone to call Lilah's parents.

"It would have been easy, you're the one who cant stand up to a 7 year old." Elena said with laughter.

"Oh be nice." Damon said.

"Oh be nice? What happened to the badass Damon that I used to know?" Elena asked.

"Shut up." He said disdainfully. Elena laughed as Damon dialled Lilah's parents to come and get her.

A while later Lilah was gone and they hadn't seen Aurora since Damon told her to clean her room.

"We should probably check on her." Damon said.

"Oh no. I will check on her. You will just give in to whatever she begs of you. Last time we told her to clean her room and you went to check on her, I found you cleaning her room for her. I'll check." Elena said.

"Good idea." Damon agreed going into the living room where Aiden was laying on the couch sleeping. Elena walked into Aurora's bedroom and found her sitting on her bed.

"Why aren't you cleaning your room?" Elena asked.

"I don't wanna." she whined.

"Doesn't matter. Clean your room." Elena said firmly.

"I don't wanna. I want daddy." she whined.

"No. This is your mess. You clean it up." Elena said.

"Lilah should have helped me." she stated petulantly with her arms crossed.

"She would have if you would have shared your doll." Elena said.

"It's my doll. I don't want her playing with her. She's mine." Aurora yelled, her face red and wide blue eyes.

"Don't yell at me, and clean your room." Elena ordered.

"No." she screamed and started crying.

"Crying wont work on me sweetheart. Clean your room. If its not done by supper time you're grounded." Elena stated before walking out of the room and shutting the door. Elena shook her head and walked back downstairs where Damon was sitting next to Aiden.

"How's my other baby feeling?" she asked.

"He's still sick. That was impressive by the way. You put the 7 year old girl in her place." Damon cheered.

"She's mad at me now." Elena said sitting down.

"She'll get over it." Damon stated.

"I'll go start on dinner." Elena said pressing a kiss to her little boys forehead as he whimpered; his fever getting worse.

"What about me? He got a kiss, why don't I?" Damon asked pouting adorably.

"At least now I know where Aurora gets her pout from. Its cute on her, not so much on you." she said pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

"I am adorable." he remarked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Keep telling yourself that." Elena shouted back as she dug through the freezer.

The next day Damon dropped Aiden and Aurora off at school, Aiden was feeling better. Aurora walked onto the playground and stopped in her tracks. She saw Lilah playing with Samantha, one of the girls that were mean to her.

"Lilah do you want to come over today after school?" Aurora asked her friend.  
>"No. I'm playing with Samantha." Lilah said petulantly.<p>

"Fine." Aurora said stalking away. When the bell rang Aurora walked to her desk and sat down. Lilah took her seat beside her and the two girls ignored each other. When lunch rolled around Aurora sat down at her table and Lilah came and sat down beside her.  
>"I don't want to fight with you anymore." she said.<p>

"Me neither." Aurora sighed.

"Do you want to be my best friend again?" Lilah asked.

"Yes. Do you want to come over after school? You can play with my Aurora doll." Aurora offered.

"Sure." Lilah said smiling at her best friend. Aurora hugged her friend, their fight forgotten.


	8. Year 8

"Are you taking us trick or treating?" Aiden asked as they walked into the house after school with their mom in tow.

"We are. Have you thought of what you're being for Halloween yet?" Elena asked hanging their backpacks on the hook and going into the kitchen to fix them a snack.

"Me and Josh want to be vampires." Aiden said his bright blue eyes glowing with excitement.

"A vampire. Really." Elena said stifling a laugh, knowing how the Halloween-ified vampires annoyed Damon.

"Yep. I want to be a vampire. I want fangs and a cape, and white makeup on my face." he said telling her exactly what he wanted.

"You do know that's not what vampires look like right honey? We don't have pale faces and capes." Elena said as she cut the two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in half and trimmed off the crusts for the picky eight year olds

"I know that. But dressing up like dad is so not cool." Aiden said as if he was speaking to someone of lesser intelligence.

"I guess." Elena said as she placed the plates in front of the two kids. "What about you Aurora?" Elena asked.

"I'm going to be Princess Aurora." she said with absolutely no hesitation.

"Honey, don't you think you should be something else this year? You've been Princess Aurora every year since you were two." Elena said.

"Nope, I want to be Princess Aurora. Lilah is being Princess Jasmine." Aurora explained.

"Alright. We'll go shopping tonight, when your dad gets home." Elena said.  
>"Where is daddy?" Aurora asked noticing for the first time that her dad wasn't home.<p>

"He's with Uncle Stefan." Elena said and poured herself a cup of O-neg.

"Okay." she said not concerned.

When Damon got home a little while later, Aiden and Aurora ran to the entry way to greet their father.

"Daddy can we go shopping now?" Aiden and Aurora asked simultaneously when they seen their dad.

"Shopping for what?" he asked when he seen the little people standing at the door.

"Halloween costume! Silly daddy." Aurora said.

"Oh right. Halloween. Fake vampires, clowns, witches, zombies and other creatures littering the streets, and stopping by begging for candy. That is the worst holiday on the planet, I don't even understand why it exists." Damon muttered.

"Uh because its fun... daddy." Aurora said looking at him like he spouted horns or something.

"How is it fun?" Damon asked legitimately baffled by the holiday.

"I get to dress up and get candy. It is the best night EVER" Aiden explained.

"Alright, I'll believe you this time." Damon said walking into the kitchen where Elena was clearing the plates from their after school snack.

"So what time do you want to go on this glorious shopping excursion?" Damon asked.

"As soon as possible. I figure we can go shopping, get the costumes, which is not going to be fun Then maybe go to the Grill for dinner, I don't feel like cooking tonight." Elena suggested.

"Sounds good to me." he said mentally readying himself for this particular horrifying shopping trip.

A while later they were in the costume store, which was filled with loud kids and parents trying to quiet their children down.

"At least our kids are well-behaved." Damon said as they walked through the store with the kids leading them.

"That they are."Elena said as she laced her fingers with her husbands and followed the kids through the store.

"They sure know where they're going, don't they?" Damon noted as they followed them to the princess costumes.

"Oh they know exactly what they are dressing up as." Elena said.

"Just a random guess... Aurora is Princess Aurora yet again, right?" he asked.

"You are astute. I tried to convince her, but she's stubborn. I wonder where she gets that from?" Elena asked staring pointedly at her husband.

"I wonder... definitely not me." he said as they were stopped in front of the costumes waiting for Aurora to find what she was looking for.

"Oh it was definitely you." Elena remarked.

"Why can't she just wear the costume she wore last year? It would save money. We have bought a new Princess Aurora costume every year since she was two." Damon wondered.

"Because in a vain hope of her changing her preferred costume, we donate them to charity at the end of Halloween each year. And because kids grow Damon, it wouldn't have fit her this year. She's grown quite a bit." Elena told him.

"I guess that's true." Damon said as Aurora muttered "AHA" and pulled the costume from the rack.

"All done." she said.

"Finally." Aiden muttered and he led them down the aisle until he found what he was looking for.

When Halloween came Damon was standing in front of the kids looking at them.

"I can't believe you're being a vampire." Damon said staring at his sons white face, red lips that were meant to look like they were covered in blood, and black cape with a dramatic collar.

"I like vampires. This is how vampires are supposed to look dad. You are weird." Aiden told him firmly.

"I'm weird? You're weird, you're the one that's dressed as a fake vampire." Damon said.

"Well Josh's sister told me that vampires are supposed to look like this, or they're supposed to sparkle. You don't sparkle and you don't look like this, so you and mom are weird." Aiden explained.

"And how old is Josh's sister?" Damon asked, cringing when he mentioned the sparkling vampires.

"14. she's smart. She reads vampire books." Aiden stated.

"Ah. Well I am a real vampire, and I do not sparkle. Sparkling vampires are wusses." he said.

"I am going to tell Shelby that. She is in love with Edward." Aiden told her.

"Edward is a moron." Damon said turning to walk into the kitchen.

"Well that was amusing." Elena said sitting at the table.

"He's a vampire. You couldn't have warned me about that. The irony is insane. Our son of all kids should know what vampires look like." he said.

"Just let it go. He'll grow out of the phase soon enough." Elena assured him as the doorbell rang. They opened the door to find Lilah's family and Josh's family.

"Come on in." Elena said as the families walked in.

"Are you sure you want to take them too?" Kathy asked.

"It's fine. It's our turn. Next year you guys take them." Elena said.

"Sounds good to us. When are you leaving?" Josh's mom asked.

"As soon as my brother-in-law gets here. He's manning the house to give candy to the trick or treaters while we're gone." Elena explained.

"Most people just don't give out candy until they're home. You're very dedicated." Kathy stated.

"I am. And besides Stefan has nothing better to do with his time. He lives a very boring existence." Elena said.

"I heard that. And I'm offended. My existence is not boring." Stefan said striding through the door.

"It's not as fun as ours. But now that you're here, we have to get going." Elena said.

"On second thought, I will stay here with Stef." Damon said.

"Ah ah. Nope. You are coming with me. I am not walking around with four kids alone." Elena said

"Come on Elena. You're a vamp, you can handle it." Damon said.

"That's not the point. I didn't want to bring this up, but what am I supposed to do with all the wandering eyes of all the other men trick or treating this year. I am quite aware of how I look for my age. I don't want to garner more attention than necessary." she said.

"Men would be stupid to check you out. You're mine." Damon said firmly.

"You need to prove that by coming with us." she said.

"Fine. I'll come trick or treating with you, Princess Aurora, Princess Jasmine and two vampires." he said.

"Good let's go." Elena said excitedly. Everyone left and they got the kids into the SUV before driving around town and knocking on doors.

When they were finally done, they dropped Lilah and Josh off at their houses before returning home.

"Did we have lots of kids?" Elena asked Stefan when they walked in.

"Lots. We almost went through all the candy you had." Stefan answered.

"Yay." Elena said clapping her hands.

"Well I better get back to my boring existence." Stefan said as he walked out of the house.

"Can we have candy?" Aurora and Aiden asked simultaneously.

"After you bath. You're filthy." Elena said sending them up to the bedrooms to get cleaned up. "While we're gone, we'll look through your candy to make sure it's all safe." Elena said. They nodded and ran up the stairs. Elena heard the water running in the kids en-suite bathrooms and smiled. They listened so well when there was candy involved.

"We should let them stay up tonight. They have no school tomorrow." Damon suggested after they were done going through the candy.

"Okay." Elena said agreeing with them.

"And for tonight only we should let them eat whatever they want. I've always wanted to see them passed out in a sugar coma on the living room floor." Damon suggested.

"Okay." Elena agreed again cuddling into her husband's side. When the kids emerged again dressed in their pajamas they looked at their parents with puppy dog eyes.

"Can we have some candy?" Aurora asked.

"You can eat whatever you want, and stay up as late as you want for today only." Damon told her. The kids were so happy and planted themselves on the floor and started going through their candy. It only took about an hour of non-stop candy eating until they were asleep in a pile of candy wrappers.

"Should we move them?" Damon asked.

"Nah. Let's leave them there. They look so peaceful." Elena said.

"Okay. Let's go to bed." Damon said standing up.

"Okay. Tonight was a very successful Halloween." Elena said.

"We should let them do this every year." Damon suggested again.

"Works for me." she said flipping off the big overhead light but leaving the sconces on the wall on, on a dimmer setting leaving the sugar filled kids behind sleeping.


	9. Year 9

Whew it has taken a LONG time to get something out for this story. I'm so sorry for the long wait and I really hope you're still with me. This chapter is entirely credited to my little sister Jenaye afterall she is definitely the One Direction expert in my house. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Damon or Elena or the lyrics to "Little Things" by One Direction. everything is owned by their rightful owners however consider the writing mine.

* * *

><p>"Please please please please please please!" Aiden and Aurora chanted at the breakfast table the next morning.<p>

"Please what?" Damon asked sipping from a mug of blood.

"Don't you listen to us at all?" Aurora huffed with her hands on her hips. She looked exactly like her mother when she had that adorable annoyed expression on her face.

"Apparently not." Damon muttered, thinking it was far too early in the morning for demanding nine year olds.

"We want to have a sleepover. Mom said we have to ask you." Aiden interjected.

"Why would your mother do that, we all know she's the boss." Damon asked.

"So can we?" They asked again ignoring his last sentence.

"Ask your mom." Damon told them.

"She told us to ask you." Aurora shouted.

"Fine then, yes I guess you can have a sleepover." Damon decided, regretting the decision with every word he said.

"Yay! I'm inviting Lilah, Sadie, Michelle, Larissa and Jamie." Aurora listed.

"Whoa five of them?" Damon called out his eyes wide with fear.

"I'm inviting Josh, Matthew, Kyle, Trevor and Carter." Aiden called out.

"10 kids?" Damon asked.

"Come on dad you're a vampire, are you saying you can't handle 10 kids?" Aiden asked raising his eyebrows.

"Did I say that? I know I can handle it, I just don't want to." Damon explained as Elena walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah Damon, are you saying you can't handle 10 kids?" Elena asked bumping her hip with his.

"I. Hate. You." He told her, glaring.

After school 12 kids came barrelling through the front door dropping backpacks and shoes on the way.

"Can we have a snack?" Aiden yelled, trying to make his voice heard over all the other kids.

"You guys can have apples. I will text your dad to bring more home." Elena told them leading them all into the kitchen. She could see it now, she was going to end up regretting this but she'd never let Damon have the satisfaction of being right. She quickly typed out the text message and sent it before turning and seeing the mess the entrance way was in.

"Oh my God..." She sighed seeing the mess.

Damon walked in a little while later with a couple paper bags from the grocery store.

"How's it going?" He asked smugly.

"How do you think? They're hungry and loud." Elena told him.

"Regretting it yet?" He asked smirking.

"Not a chance." She said grabbing one of the bags out of his hands and taking it into the kitchen. She pulled twelve apples out of the bag and washed them before handing them out to the kids. She went to the fridge and looked inside before slamming it shut.

"Pizza it is." She decreed, going into the living room where Damon was sitting.

After dinner, Elena walked upstairs and opened Aiden's room where she could acutely hear yelling and whining.

"What's going on in here?" Elena asked.

"Aiden is cheating." Matthew shouted.

"Aiden is good at video games, I don't think he's cheating." Elena defended her son.

"He's beaten me five times already." Matthew whined.

"I am not cheating." Aiden told his friend slowly.

"I think Aiden's cheating too." Kyle said.

"My best friend does not cheat." Josh stated firmly.

"Okay then..." Elena said slowly backing out of the room and shutting the door. She immediately walked down the hallway to Aurora's room.

Elena opened the door to Aurora's room. The blaring music came through as Elena opened the door.

"What are you girls listening to?" Elena asked.

"MOM! This is One Direction! I listen to them everyday, every night! How could you not know this?" Aurora cried.

"Honey, how do you expect me to know exactly who you are listening to? You girls listen to too many bands it's crazy." Elena explained.

"But mom! Its One Direction we're talking about. Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis and Zayn. They're like so hot!" Aurora said happily.

"Okay Aurora. You have fun." Elena said, walking out of the room closing the door behind her.

Once Elena left, Aurora turned the music back on ,"little things" blared from the speakers. The 6 girls started to sing to the cute song.

_Your hand fits in mine like its made just for me_

_But bare this in mind it was meant to be_

_And I'm joining all the dots with the freckles on your checks_

_And it all makes sense to me_

_I know you've never loved the crinkles by your eyes_

_When you smile _

_you've never loved your stomach or your thighs_

_The dimples on your back at the bottom of your spine_

_But I'll love you endlessly. _

_I wont let these little things slip out of my mouth,_

_but if i do_

_its you. _

_Oh Its you they add up to. _

_I'm in love with you and all these little things.. _

Downstairs Damon had his head buried into a pillow trying to drown out the sound of the music and horrible 9 year old singing.

"Elena! This is killing me. I can't listen to this any longer." Damon complained.

"Oh come on Damon... it's only one night. I am sure you will be able to handle it for a couple more hours." Elena said.

"Elena it won't be just one more night. They are gonna to ask for a sleepover every weekend now just because we let them this time." Damon stated sadly. "My life is ruined now."

"Damon come on. Aren't you happy that they are happy?" Elena asked.

"No." Damon muttered.

"Damon." Elena warned.

"What?" Damon asked.

"You are a truly terrible father." Elena muttered.

"Hey that was uncalled for." Damon stated.

"I'm aware." She stated smirking.

When it came time for snacks Elena walked up the stairs with two bowls of chips and an assortment of pops. She knocked on Aiden's room.

"What?" Aiden hollered from inside the room.

"Do you boys want a snack?" Elena called. Immediately the door flew open, with the boys standing at it.

"I'll take that as a yes." Elena laughed.

"What is there?"Josh asked excitedly.

"Yeah, Mom what is there?" Aiden asked.

"A bowl of chips and some pop." Elena explained.

"Yes! We want it!" Aiden yelled with joy. Elena laughed and handed the boys their chips and their pops, then left the room shutting the door behind her.

Elena then knocked on the door of Aurora's room. The girls opened it without any questions asked.

"Yes mom?" Aurora asked.

"Would you girls like a snack? Its pop and chips.." Elena explained.

"Yes please. Thank you for letting me and Aiden have this sleepover, its been the best night ever. I love you!" Aurora smiled sweetly.

"You're welcome sweetheart, and I love you to. Bedtime soon girls, though." Elena said as she walked out of the room and shut the door.

A little while later Damon heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Damon sighed to himself, then put on the best smile he could.

"What do you guys want now?" Damon asked curiously.

"We want to watch a movie." Aurora said innocently, holding up a pile of movies, two of them being One Direction related.

Damon sighed. "Fine... what movies?" Aurora held up the movies in her hands. He could tell which ones they would be watching...sadly. He groaned, Elena took the movie from her daughter and went to put it in the DVD player, before taking her seat back beside her husband. She laid her hand on his thigh, as the opening credits of the documentary began. The girls situated themselves on the floor in front of the TV, as the faces of One Direction appeared on the screen.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Damon whined, laying his head on the back of the couch.

"Tonight only." Elena said.

"Tonight is too much." Damon grumbled.

"Think about your children's happiness. Look how happy they are." Elena whispered much too low for the girls to hear.

"They do look happy. I guess it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be." Damon sighed.

"I know. We're the parents of nine year olds, it's going to get worse. Soon enough they'll be wanting to hang out even more with their friends and the friends will always be here. Better get used to it." Elena explained.

An hour later the movie was almost done, Elena went upstairs to let the boys know it was bedtime.

"Aiden," Elena whispered. "It's time for you boys to go to sleep. The girls are going to sleep in 5 minutes, they are just finishing their movie. Do you need help making the beds on the floor?"

"No mom, I think we can manage." Aiden told his mom wanting to be independent.

"Okay, that's fine. Goodnight." Elena allowed.

"Goodnight mom."

When Elena got back down the stairs she saw the girls had passed out on the floor in front of the TV. She smiled at the sight. She dimmed the lights in the living room, then went to grab a couple blankets from the closet. She then draped them over the girls.

"Lets go watch a movie upstairs so we don't interrupt the girls." Elena told Damon. He got up off the couch and started going up the stairs with his wife, shutting the lights off as they went.


	10. Year 10

I sure hope everyone didn't completely abandon this story. I do love writing it. Only 6 chapters left and I will have it finished before summer. That is a promise. If there is still anyone out there reading this, please let me know what you think. I have no excuses for why there was such a long wait only the lack of a muse for this story.

* * *

><p>"Are too." Aurora shouted in the car to her brother.<p>

"Am not!" He responded just as loud.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too"

"Am not!"

"Shut it or else I'm turning this car around and we're going home."Damon shouted over the kids voice. They'd been driving for the past half hour and the kids hadn't stopped arguing since then. First it was about the music choice, in which Damon had overrode them both and plugged in Elena's Ipod. Then they were arguing about which one was smarter, which then turned into which was stupider.

"Okay." Aiden and Aurora muttered at the same time. The family was on their way to Richmond for back to school shopping. Elena wanted to get out of town and they had to do school shopping so it was the perfect solution.

"You can't turn the car around dad. Mom said we have to go to Richmond for shopping." Aiden stated confidently.

"Wanna bet? I can drive you home and you can stay with Uncle Stefan. Me and your mom will go to Richmond and go shopping for ourselves instead." Damon told him, knowing he had him now.

"Mom! You wouldn't let dad do that would you?" He asked hopefully. He flashed his baby blues at his mom hoping she'd

give in. He noticed that always worked when his dad did it.

"Nope I'm sorry. United front. I have to be on team dad and the two of you were starting to get on my nerves too." She told him shaking her head.

"Are you serious?" He asked baffled. The eye thing didn't work.

"I'm serious." Elena affirmed nodding her head.

"Damn." The 10 year old muttered forgetting all about his parent's super hearing for the moment.

"What did you say?!" Elena shouted shocked. Damon didn't react, he thought there were far worse things he could have said instead. Damn in comparison was much tamer than others he could have said.

"I'm sorry." Aiden stated reflexively.

"You'd better be sorry. If I ever hear another bad word come out of your mouth again young man I will wash your mouth out with soap." She warned him firmly.

"Okay okay I'll be good." He said frantically. The soap threat as good as gold when it came to him. It had actually

happened to him one time when he was younger and the horror of that moment had stayed with him since.

"Haha Aiden got in trouble." Aurora cheered in the backseat.

"Aurora mind your own business or else you'll be in trouble too Missy." Elena told her daughter. She quickly shut her mouth and Aiden elbowed her in the ribs.

"Stop it!" She screamed and elbowed him back.

"Alright that's it." Damon stated pulling over on the side of the road.

"Dad don't turn around. You can't turn around. I need a pair of DC shoes dad. Every boy in my class has DC shoes." Aiden almost begged.

"I warned you three times already. Three times! You'd think you would have listened by now. But no. You two just can't leave each other alone. What am I going to do with you?" He asked rhetorically.

"Listen your dad is right. Am I going to have to separate you two?" Elena asked looking back at the kids.

"Make Aiden ride on the roof." Aurora suggested. Damon felt his lips twitch at the words out of his daughters mouth but fought the smile back.

"No, we are not letting Aiden ride on the roof. I am getting out of this car and putting the third row of seats back where they're supposed to be. That means we can't buy as much stuff in Richmond but at least now you will be separated." Damon explained as he got out of the car and opened the hatch to the SUV and pulled the seats out of the floor.

"Make Aiden go back there." Aurora insisted.

"Nope since you're so invested in this, you're going back there. Get moving." He said when the seats were locked into place.

"But daddy." She whined.

"Don't " but daddy" me. Get back there so we can get this hellish trip over with. God I hate road trips." Damon muttered as he climbed back behind the wheel.

"You never used to hate road trips." Elena noted with a smile on her face.

"That was before this." Damon told her as he put the car in gear and got back onto the highway.

When they finally got to Richmond, they immediately went to get checked into the hotel.

"You have to sleep on the floor Aiden. I get the bed all to myself." Aurora alerted him as Damon was signing the credit card receipt.

"No! You're sleeping on the floor." Aiden retorted.

"Neither of you are sleeping on the floor. Either you share the bed or you both sleep on the floor and I'll sleep in it. It'll be nice not having to share a bed for a change." Damon told them.

"No you don't like sleeping alone. You like sleeping with mom. I remember one time when I was little that I walked into your room and you were sleeping on top of mom and making sounds." He reminded him. Elena blushed a deep red colour which technically should have been impossible considering the lack of blood rushing through her veins.

"You're right I don't like sleeping alone. But I will if it means keeping you two out of trouble." Damon told them after gathering his wits after finding out his son had walked in on him having sex with his wife.

"Do I have to share a bed with Aurora?" Aiden asked finally.

"Unless you want to sleep on the floor." Damon told him as he grabbed the key card from the man at the desk and ushered his family to the elevator.

"I want to press the button Aiden!" Aurora squealed.

"You two are acting like you're 2 instead of 10." Damon told them, running a hand through his hair.

"I like pressing the button." Aurora whined.

"How about you act your age and then maybe you'll be able to press the button. Your mom is pressing the button this time." Damon told them firmly as Elena pressed the number three on the panel. Elena leaned into her husbands side and he put his arm around her waist and kissed her temple.

"Why did I ever let you convince me that they were mine? I could be lying on a beach somewhere without children and without any stress." He murmured.

"You love me, therefore you wanted them to be yours. I'm thinking maybe we should leave them here. Someone will take them in because they're so cute." Elena suggested.

"Don't suggest that because I just might take you up on that offer." He warned her.

"Nah, I think I'd miss them if they were gone." Elena decided as she watched Aiden give Aurora a gentle shove to which immediately she punched his arm.

"What did we tell you about violence in public?" Elena demanded.

"You said we could hit each other when we're at home but not in public." The kids reiterated to their mom.

"Exactly, does this look like home?" She asked.

"No." They both answered.

"Exactly. Then stop." She told them looking at them both.

"This is the longest elevator ride in the history of elevator rides." Damon sighed when the elevator finally came to a stop.

"Lets get to our room." Elena said when the doors opened. Everyone grabbed their bags and walked down the hall. The kids racing on ahead.

"I want to open the door." Aiden shouted.

"Shush and I will open the door." Damon responded as he caught up with the kids and pushed the key card into the slot causing the door to open. The kids raced into the room and Damon followed behind them with Elena bringing up the rear. Damon immediately collapsed on the bed closest to the door.

"Ah not as comfortable as our bed not not too shabby." He sighed happily, resting back on the pillow.

"We want to go swimming." Aiden and Aurora shouted just when Damon got comfortable.

"Not right now." Damon demurred.

"You promised." The kids whined.

"You kinda did promise them." Elena reminded him.

"Yeah but that was before they were devil spawn all day today." He retorted.

"Come on. You and I can sit in the hot tub. They can both swim and they both know the rules. It'll be fine." She promised

him.

"Famous last words. But fine you're the boss." Damon whined as he got up and trudged into the bathroom to put his swim suit on. He came out seconds later and Elena quickly changed into her bikini.

"When can I wear a bikini like mom?" Aurora asked.

"Never. Men don't need to look at you like that." He told his daughter who pouted adorably and stalked to the bathroom to change. When she was done Aiden went in and soon they were all ready to head down to the pool. Elena put her bathing suit coverup on to cover her bikini and followed her kids down to the pool.

"Now this is relaxing." Damon sighed happily as he relaxed in the hot tub with Elena behind him massaging the muscles in his shoulders. He sat between her legs and he massaged her feet while she massaged his shoulders. The kids were splashing companionably in the pool. It didn't get much better than that for them. It was calm and serene.

"How long do you think it's going to last?" Elena asked softly, pressing a kiss to the spot where his neck met his shoulders.

"I have no idea. Let's just enjoy it while it does." Damon replied leaning into her touch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day the kids were up at the crack of dawn.

"Can we go swimming again? Can we? Can we?" They asked.

"The pool isn't open yet. Go back to sleep for a couple more hours." Damon insisted mashing his face into the pillow.

"Hours?" They demanded.

"Yes hours. It's only 5:30." He groaned checking the clock on his bedside table.

"Why?" They whined.

"Do you want us to take you shopping today? If so you have to let us sleep until at least 8." Damon told them while Elena stuffed her head under her pillow to drown out the noise.

"But we're bored." They whined.

"Occupy yourselves. You're 10 years old. Find something to do." Damon ordered as he lay back down and shut his eyes. He heard the TV go on and smiled when the kids actually agreed on watching "loony toons."

The kids woke them up at exactly 8 to Damon's chagrin.

"Can we go swimming again?" They asked.

"We're going home today. We'll take you swimming when we get back to Mystic Falls. Maybe if you're really good all day today we'll come back next weekend too." Damon told them.

"What do you mean by good?" They asked suspiciously.

"No fighting, no arguing or talking back to me and mom." He explained.

"You're no fun. But fine. We want to come back next weekend." Aiden decided.

"Good now go get dressed. Whoever's fastest gets to press the elevator buttons." Damon decided. One kid ran to the bathroom the other to the closet and they quickly changed. Aiden came out a couple minutes later missing his shirt.

"Whoa kid where is your shirt? You can't go out like that." Elena told him.

"I'm not. I forgot my shirt in my bag." He assured his mom.

"Good you better hurry your sister is going to beat you." Elena told him.

"I'm letting her win. The button is more important to her anyway." Aiden shrugged.

"Very mature." Damon said approvingly.

"Thanks dad." Aiden said smugly.

When everyone was dressed, they grabbed their bags and took the elevator downstairs. Aurora relished in pressing the button.

"Can I get DC shoes?" Aiden asked as they checked out then puled back into the SUV.

"We'll see. It's quite a drive to the mall which gives you lots of time to make me mad." Damon told him.

"I'll be good I promise." He vowed.

"I want a pink sparkly pair of Toms." Aurora interjected.

"Are you going to behave?" He asked.

"Daddy, I'm always good." She told him looking up at him innocently.

"Haha, nice try." He told her shaking his head and climbed behind the wheel. The drive to the mall was completely silent and both Damon and Elena relished in it.

"You hear that?" Damon asked softly.

"What?" Elena replied.

"Nothing. The silence. Isn't it beautiful?" He asked.

"I love it." Elena agreed.

It took most of the day to make their way through the mall buying the kids school supplies and clothing. They both got the shoes they wanted for school an a whole bunch of clothes.

"I think I'm tired of shopping." Aurora sighed as she lugged her bags behind her.

"I'm sure you are. It's exhausting being spoiled isn't it?" Damon asked sarcastically.

"I'm ready to go home." She sighed as Aiden clearly echoed her sentiment.

"Thank God, I was waiting for you to say that." Damon cheered as he ushered them towards the car.


	11. Year 11

If anyone's still reading this I'm so sorry about the wait. This story is just so hard for me to write since I can't go to my usual plot-filler for it. I still promise that this story will be over by the end of summer. End of August this story will be over. Only 5 more chapters. As always let me know what you think.

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><p>"You're really going to make me chaperone the school outdoor ed, camping trip? Why can't you do it?" Damon asked.<p>

"You my dear strong husband would be able to take on a bear if it attacked. I however wouldn't." Elena said to him as she

zipped up his duffel bag emphatically.

"You my dear wife are a vampire. You could take a bear. So now I'm left wondering why you want me gone so bad?" Damon asked placing his fist under his chin clearly thinking about it.

"Okay fine, I wanted to have a girls weekend with Care and Bonnie. But I can't do that with you here. It's killing two birds with one stone. I know the kids are safe and I get girl-time." Elena gave in exasperated at her husband.

"All you had to do is say that. But I hate camping Elena. Hate it. Can't I go hang out with Ric for a weekend, take him with me to Richmond with me or something." He asked.

"No." She told him firmly.

"Why not? Vampires do not camp." He informed her.

"I don't want the kids to be eaten by bears." She told him as she handed him the duffel.

"They won't get eaten by bears, even if they did wouldn't it be peaceful around here?" He asked.

"I am going to ignore the fact that you even said that. You are going camping. No more whining." She said as she pushed him out of the room and downstairs where the kids were fiddling with their bags.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Elena asked when she pushed a disgruntled looking Damon into the living room.

"Yes." They both called as Damon's glower intensified.

"I'm not." He whined.

"Come on it won't be so bad. You don't even really have to do anything. All you have to do is make sure none of them get eaten by bears. Imagine everyone's joy when my big strong husband disposes of a bear when it's attacking camp?" Elena asked wrapping her arms around him.

"There are no bears where we're camping Elena. If it's only about the bears then I really don't need to go. I'm sure there are

lots of parent volunteers that would enjoy going much more than I would. Anything else I would probably do, just not camping." He pleaded.

"It's a bit late now dear. You have no choice but to go. It's only a weekend, as much as you think otherwise I'm sure you'll get through it just fine." Elena assured him, reaching up and pecking him on the lips.

"Fine. I guess I'm going camping." He said his voice oozing fake enthusiasm.

Elena watched with a small smile on her face as Damon slipped into his leather jacket with a prominent frown on his face.

"Are you really wearing a leather jacket camping? It's going to be hot this weekend." She asked him.

"Vampire, remember? Heat does not bother me, at least not nearly as much as camping does. If I'm going, I'm going to be comfortable."He told her as he wandered into the parlour. Elena followed after him and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Bourbon? Really? A school camping trip and you're bringing bourbon?" She asked incredulously.

"If I'm being forced on this trip I am going to enjoy it. One bottle should be enough to last me the weekend." He decided as he shoved it in his duffel.

"You're going to spend the entire trip getting drunk when you're supposed to be camping with our children?" She asked.

"It takes an awful lot of alcohol to get me drunk baby. One bottle over the course of a weekend won't do it. It'll just make me slightly more agreeable." He told her as he walked over to the anxiously waiting eleven year olds.

"We better get going or else we will be late." He told Elena as he opened the front door and gestured for the kids to head out to the car.

"Do you want me to drive you so you don't have to leave your car there?" Elena asked.

"Yes. Good idea." Damon agreed calling to the kids over his shoulder to get into Elena's SUV instead.

"It pays to be the beauty and the brains in this relationship." Elena murmured as she picked up her car keys.

"Speak for yourself I am both smarter and prettier than you." Damon scoffed as they walked out to the car.

"I could make you leave your precious Camaro at the school for two whole days all by itself." Elena reminded him as she got into the drivers side of the car.

"You wouldn't do that to my baby. I love that car and it would kill me to leave her alone for two days where it can be

vandalized." Damon shivered, just thinking about the possibility.

"I love how connected you are to that car. It's frightening." Elena responded as the kids sat silently for the first time ever in the backseat of the car. No fighting, no talking. Nothing. Just silence and it was refreshing.

"That car is the other love of my life, except I've loved it longer than I've loved you. I will mourn if it ever dies." Damon told her shivering in response yet again.

"Good to know." Elena laughed when she parked in front of the school where a bus was already waiting.

"Yay we're here." Aiden cheered as Aurora leaped out of her side of the car and ran towards the bus.

"Bye mom." Aiden called as he followed after his sister.

"Bye kids." Elena called and didn't get a response. "I guess I don't get a kiss or a hug goodbye, but that's okay."

"I'll see you in a couple days." Damon told her leaning over to kiss her quickly.

"Have fun." She told him kissing again. The bus horn honked and the kids called for their dad, causing them to break the kiss.

"I better go." Damon sighed unhappily.

"There will be more of this if you behave on this trip." Elena told him, reaching across him and opening the door for him.

"I guess I'll go now." Damon sighed as he got out of the car.

"I'll see you Sunday afternoon." Elena called as he walked away.

After listening to a very juvenile rendition of "Wheels on the bus" Damon reluctantly pulled out his bottle of bourbon and poured some into his travel mug. He caught the disapproving eye of the teacher and he just rolled his eyes, taking a swig of the drink.

"Daddy, are you drinking already?" Aurora asked from the seat behind him with Lilah.

"I need it. If I have to hear one more rendition of the "Wheels on the bus" I'm going to go on a mass murder." Damon told her.

"I think you should have brought more bourbon." Aurora murmured, which almost caused Damon to spit out his drink when a wave of laughter moved through him.

"You're a funny child Aurora Charlotte Salvatore." Damon told her, flashing his daughter a smile.

"I know I am Daddy Salvatore." She replied with the exact same smile on her face. Damon chuckled under his breath and turned to face the front of the bus with the stupid grin that was reserved for just his children and his wife plastered onto his face. "See dad, it's not going to be that bad."

"Oh sure it's not. Just because you guys are being good right now doesn't mean it's going to stay like that." Damon told her as he listened to Aiden talk to his friends at the back of the bus.

"I'll be good dad. I'll make sure you don't have to drink the entire bottle of bourbon." Aurora promised him.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Damon replied as he took another sip out of his to-go cup as yet another version of "Wheels on the Bus" started up; Damon firmly believed that they were too old to be singing that particular song.

After what seemed like forever they got to the campground and the teachers divided up 6 students for every parent volunteer.

"Chaperones please ensure your students stay with you at all times. We can't have any students going missing. Aurora and Aiden I assume you want to be with you dad?" Mrs. Monroe asked.

"Sure." Aiden shrugged.

"Yes please." Aurora answered.

"Lilah, Mackayla, Jordan and Tyson can join you in your tent." The teacher ordered. All the students convened around Damon and he sighed in relief at the four recognizable faces, the other two he didn't know but Aurora, Lilah, Aiden and Jordan he was familiar with. "Make sure they help with the set up of the camp site."

"Believe me when I say this will be so much easier without their help."Damon retorted.

"This is their outdoor education class Mr. Salvatore. You have to let them do something." The teacher replied exasperated.

"Fine, I'll figure something out."Damon sighed gesturing for his group to go to the furthest campsite. He sent the two kids who didn't know about vampires off to get firewood while at vampire speed Damon set up the tent while the other four kids watched with rapt fascination.

"Your dad would win any race in the world." Lilah breathed surprised.

"I know, my dad is amazing. I think our group is going to win " Aurora replied.

"We're done." Mackayla and Tyson said when they returned a few minutes later.

"Good so are we." Damon said once they sat down after each carrying a bundle of firewood. "Aurora go tell your teacher

that we're done."

"Yes, Sir." Aurora agreed saluting her dad after he effectively won the contest depicting who would have to wash up all the dishes that night.

"Wow, you guys are done fast." Mrs. Monroe stated as she came over to check on their handiwork.

"Mmhm. I have an amazing team." Damon answered smugly.

"You sure do. You put your campers to work very well Mr. Salvatore. Good job. You are not on dishes duty tonight." She said admirably.

"Good job team." Damon said as the teacher walked away.

"Thank you." Aurora said sweetly.

Later that night while everyone was trying to go to sleep, Damon's tent would not quiet down.

"Would you guys shut up, I am trying to sleep here." Damon begged as Aurora and Lilah and Aiden and Jordan were up talking. The other two were sound asleep which made Damon happy.

"We're having a sleepover daddy. This is what girls do at sleepovers." Aurora reminded him.

"I don't need to hear about Justin Freaking Bieber or anyone else. I need sleep. Even vampires need sleep. Now shut it." He told them before lying back down.

"But we can still talk right dad?"Aiden asked.

"I also don't need to hear whether "Final Fantasy" is better than "Halo." Damon told them, hinting that they needed to quiet

down too

"Our conversation is better than Justin Bieber." Aiden argued.

"Is not." Aurora interjected.

"I am withholding judgement. Just go to sleep, we will discuss it more in the morning." Damon told them, knowing the only way to get them to co-operate was to not take sides. The moment you took a side with the two of them, you essentially lost the battle because they spent as long as it took to sway you over to the losing side and then the fight never ended.

"Fine." They both sighed.

"Good now go to sleep." Damon ordered them.

"Fine." They both answered before the tent went completely quiet.

The next day found all of the groups hiking together. Damon had his group all together which was harder than it seemed it would be for a vampire chaperone. The girls were too busy talking about all their little boy-bands and celebrity crushes at the age of 11 thus falling behind, and the boys were walking much faster than the girls. He had to repeatedly tell the girls to speed up and the boys to slow down, it was difficult.

"I can't wait until tomorrow." Damon sighed to himself and took a deep drink out of his travel mug which was yet again filled to the brim with bourbon. At the rate he was going he was apt to run out of bourbon before he even made it through the rest of the day. When all of the groups finally got to the top of the hill, the teacher taught them about some of the trees and grasses along with the flowers that were up there. All the students paid attention knowing that it was likely to be on the exam at the end of the school year. Damon leaned against a tree and idly wondered how Elena was enjoying her kid free girls weekend. She had to be having more fun than him.

"Mr. Salvatore, isn't it a wee bit hot to be wearing a leather jacket?" Another of the parent chaperones asked.

"Never too hot to look good." Damon corrected her.

"But the leather has got to be sticky and uncomfortable. It's like 100 degrees out here." She said shaking her head.

"I'm fine." He stated taking another sip from his mug.

"You sure look fine." She agreed causing Damon's eyebrows to rise up towards his hairline.

"Uhhh... thanks." Damon said taking another drink purposely showing off his wedding ring.

"Mrs. Salvatore sure is a lucky woman." The female chaperone stated with a slightly pouty expression on her face before walking off to rejoin the group.

"Why did God curse me with this face?" Damon asked no one in particular.

"Mom like your face." Aurora told him as she walked over to her.

"So did your classmates mother." Damon retorted.

"When you look like us dad you have to get used to female attention." A cocky eleven year old Aiden stated.

"I suppose you're right." Damon allowed. After the class was over all the groups got back together and began the hike back down the hill. This time they all stayed together better, making the trip so much faster.

"How do you keep your group together so well? By the way my name is Eva." The chaperone from before asked.

"I can be very persuasive when I want to be." Damon told her as he walked close by Aurora.

"I can see that. A dangerous combination when added to your looks." She winked. Damon rolled his eyes and continued walking, studiously ignoring the woman beside him.

The next day as camp was being set down Damon breathed a sigh of relief. It was finally time to go home. About another hour there and then two more on a bus and he would be home.

"I wanna stay for a few more days." Aurora pleaded with her dad.

"I don't camp. I hate camping. I have a beautiful wife and a comfortable bed at home that I need to get home to." Damon told her.

"Can we please go camping again sometime?" Aurora pleaded.

"I'm going to say no but your mom will probably say yes because she's cruel like that." Damon told her.

"Can I ask mom?" Aurora asked.

"If you absolutely must." Damon replied.

"Can Jordan have a sleepover tonight?" Aiden asked.

"Nope, it's a school night. You have to get home and get ready for school tomorrow." Damon told him.

"Aw dad you promised last weekend that we could have a sleepover." Aiden whined.

"Too bad I lied. So sad. Take your bag to the bus." He told him handing him the bag.

"It's not fair." Aiden hissed.

"Lifes not fair." Damon called after him as he handed Aurora the other bag.

"I still don't want to go home." Aurora whined.

"I don't really care. I am officially out of bourbon and I'm going to need lots of it once I get home." He told her. Once the campground was all cleaned up, everyone boarded the bus and the teacher took attendance. When everyone was accounted for the driver started up the engine and pulled away from the campground. Aurora and Lilah sat right behind him again while Aiden and Jordan sat in the very back of the bus.

"Is this seat taken?" Eve asked gesturing to the seat he was sitting in, even though all the seats surrounding him aside from the one Aurora was in was empty.

"All the other ones are open." He indicated to her.

"Oh I know, but I'm starved for adult interaction. Do you mind?" She asked.

"I guess not." He sighed really not wanting to sit with her but unable to make a scene in front of his daughter. This was going to be a fun trip back to Mystic Falls.

When they finally arrived back at the school he was relieved to see Elena's SUV parked outside.

"Oh look it's my wife." Damon cheered waving at the car from the bus, never so happy to see his wife. If he had to hear one more word about how awful Eve's divorce was he would likely hang himself.

"Look it's mom." Aurora cheered as Elena got out of the car.

"She is a very lucky woman." Eve sighed.

"Nah, I'm the lucky one." He said honestly as the bus came to a stop. The rows started filing out and when everyone was off the bus Damon and the kids walked over to where Elena was leaning against the car.

"Hey, how was the trip?" She asked after kissing Damon far too briefly.

"Too long. I missed you." Damon told her kissing her cheek.

"I missed all of you too. But girls weekend was so fun. I needed that." She told him.

"I'm glad you had that but never ever ask me to do that again. I ran out of bourbon yesterday." He told her as he climbed into the passenger seat.

"Can we please go camping again?" Aurora asked hopefully.


	12. Year 12

Look who's back with a shorter wait time than usual today? Woohoo! Longer chapter four more left after this one.

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><p>"But dad said I could have a sleepover this weekend!" Aiden shouted at his sister.<p>

"But mom said I could have one. Mom is the boss. She makes all the rules." Aurora argued.

"I already invited all my friends! I'm not cancelling on them now. I invited five friends Aurora and you can't make them not come." Aiden stated firmly with his hands on his hips, his blue eyes glinting angrily.

"I don't care. Mom said I could have a sleepover.. Mom is always right." Aurora shouted back getting mad. In her mind she could see herself hitting her brother with something hard and painful to make him change his mind.

"What is going on in here?" Elena demanded when she came downstairs still wearing her robe and her hair all messed up. It looked like she had been running her hands through her hair all night.

"Aiden is telling me that he's having a sleepover." Aurora whined to her mom.

"Dad told me I could. He said it was my turn." Aiden interjected.

"But mom said it was my turn." Aurora whined.

"Darling did you say Aiden could have a party?" Elena asked finally.

"Yes I did. You didn't tell me you had already said yes to Aurora." Damon told her.

"Okay fine so we had a little miscommunication. I guess this means we have two sleepovers the same night. How many boys did you invite Aiden?" Elena asked trying to figure out how much pizza she was going to need to feed all the kids and Damon.

"Five. Josh, Bradley, Jordan, Taylor and Steven." Aiden announced.

"Okay, how many did you end up inviting Aurora?" Elena asked as she factored in another five twelve year old boys eating pizza.

"Five too mom. Lilah, Mary, Kayla, Kyla and Taylor." Aurora told them.

"Oh good Lord ten kids plus our two. Twelve freaking kids in one freaking house? The noise is going to be insane." Damon exclaimed.

"It's not going to be that bad. How bad can it be?" Elena asked hoping to convey that she felt more at ease than she actually felt.

Twelve kids were all sat at the dining room table devouring slice after slice of pizza. The conversation was nearly impossible to hear because of the amount of kids talking all at once.

"Honey do you want some pizza?" Elena asked bringing a plate of pizza out to the living room where Damon was lying down with a pillow covering his head.

"My head hurts. I didn't think vampires could get headaches but apparently I was wrong." He stated with a glower on his face.

"After dinner they'll all go up to Aiden and Aurora's rooms. We won't hear from them for the rest of the night." Elena promised him as she sat down beside him on the couch.

"What about the massive mess they're going to leave in my dining room? Who's going to clean that up?" He asked rhetorically, he knew exactly who was going to end up cleaning it up. Him. He knew that to be true.

"I'll help you dear." She promised him, leaning over and kissing his cheek.

"You'd better. This is not my fault." He told her as Aiden came rushing out of the dining room.

"Me and the guys are going to my room. We'll want snacks later on, knock on the door when you bring them. It's a guys only zone." He told his parents before walking up the stairs.

"How much do you want to bet they left all the plates on the table?" Damon asked.

"I'd guarantee it." Elena agreed as Aurora came out a little while later.

"We're going upstairs. Don't bug us unless it's really important. We're having a girls night." Aurora stated as she began to walk away.

"Have fun." Elena called.

"Oh wait mom, can we borrow your makeup? We want to do makeovers." Aurora asked.

"Don't you have that play makeup we bought you last year?" Elena asked.

"Mom, that is play makeup. We need real makeup." Aurora replied exasperated.

"Okay fine. I'll just buy new stuff later on." Elena told her and Aurora beamed.

"Thanks mom!" She said as she rushed back into the dining room where her friends were waiting for her.

"This is going to be horrible." Damon muttered under his breath.

"It'll be fine. We'll get through this, we could have a quiet night on our hands. Whatever shall we do with our alone time?" She asked coyly, her fingers walking up his thigh.

"You killed me you jackass! You are supposed to be on my team loser!" Aiden shouted at Bradley during a particularly intense video game battle.

"I'm sorry Aiden, maybe if you weren't such an awful driver, we would still be alive." Bradley argued.

"Maybe if the two of you didn't suck so bad you wouldn't be dead right now." Josh suggestion causing Aiden to glower at him. He picked up and pillow and whipped it at his head as hard as he could.

"Shut up, no one asked your opinion." Aiden glowered at his supposed best friend.

"Just pointing it out. You really suck at this game Aiden. It's no lie." Josh repeated.

"Shut the hell up Josh. Better yet go find some music to play. Aurora's damn boy-bands are ruining my concentration." Aiden told his friend.

"I don't think Aurora's music has anything to do with it Aiden," Josh stated.

"Oh does Josh like One Direction?" Jordan asked teasingly.

"Shut the f-" Josh started before Aiden stopped him.

"As sucky as this is, my parents can hear every word we say up here, let's just play our games." Aiden told them not wanting his mom to kick his friends out.

"But it's true, Josh like's One Direction. He listens to them all the time." Jordan teased.

"Shut up." Josh demanded.

"Hey guys can I tell you guys something?" Taylor asked.

"What's up?" Aiden asked liking getting dirt on his friends. It made him feel more powerful.

"There's this girl in the other class and I kind of want to ask her out. I like her, she's really pretty." Taylor confessed.

"Oh my God you have a crush?" Aiden laughed.

"What's so funny about that?" Taylor asked.

"It's fricken hilarious that's what it is. You're life is basically over now dude. Women are going to run your life for the rest

of your life. This is fricken great." Aiden cheered.

"Is not, it's not a bad thing if I like a girl." Taylor told them.

"Oh yes it is. You're whipped. You'll be the guy who only ever has sex with one girl his entire life because you love her too much. I on the other hand am going to have sex with many many women. Older women, younger women, whatever woman I can get my hands on." Aiden continued to laugh.

"You say that now, but someday you'll find a girl you like too." Taylor muttered, his face bright red.

" Doubtful. I'm going to play the field like my dad did for years before he met my mom. My dad was a bit of a man-whore people tell me and I want to be like that. His life was basically over when he married my mom." Aiden admitted.

"That sounds awesome living just for sex. You have it all figured out buddy." Jordan added on.

"I know I do. That's all I'm going to do." Aiden decided as he pressed start on the almost forgotten video game once again.

"We should play truth or dare." Kyla suggested when the girls were done dancing around the room to the One Direction album. There were only so many times you could sing "What makes you beautiful" without annoying your parents downstairs.

"Truth or dare? Is that a good idea?" Aurora asked uncertainly.

"Absolutely. Just be careful what you pick." Kyla told her. The other girls jumped in automatically.

"Come on Aurora you should play with us." Lilah encouraged.

"I don't know you guys. The game feels a little old for us." Aurora answered biting her nails.

"Come on Aurora, don't be a baby." Kyla ordered sitting down in a circle on the floor with the girls.

"I'm not a baby, I just don't want to play." Aurora stated petulantly.

"Oh come on Aurora. Don't be a chicken." Kyla stated.

"Fine, I'll play." Aurora decided, having steeled her nerves. She wasn't going to let Kyla bully her at her own sleepover.

"Alright, since it was my idea I'll go first. Truth or dare... Aurora." She stated with a mean smirk on her face.

"Truth." Aurora decided picking what she deemed to be the safer option between the two of them.

"Alright, have you ever kissed a boy?" Kyla asked.

"No." Aurora answered honestly.

"You haven't kissed a boy before? That's hilarious." Kyla laughed.

"My turn. Truth or dare, Lilah." Aurora asked and Lilah looked at her relieved. She knew Aurora wouldn't do anything to

mean to her. They were best friends.

"Truth." Lilah decided.

"Are there any boys that you like?" Aurora asked already knowing the answer, but knowing it was a safe question because

honestly which twelve year old didn't have a crush.

"Yes." Lilah answered. "My turn. Truth or dare, Kayla."

"Truth." She answered and Kyla rolled her eyes.

"Is it true that you stuffed your bra that day at school to make it look like you actually had boobs?"Lilah asked.

"Yes." Kayla answered, her face as red as a tomato.

"Kyla truth or dare?" Kayla asked.

"You guys suck, you know that. Dare." She said eager for anything. Out of all the girls she was the most developed and she was proud of that fact.

"I want you to go downstairs and flash Aurora's dad or go to the boys room and flash them. You can pick." Kayla decided.

"That's easy. I'll go downstairs because your brother and his friends do nothing for me." She said smirking.

"My parents won't appreciate that." Aurora told her as she stood up to follow Kyla to the door.

"Well it's a dare and I never break a dare." Kyla said determined to walk downstairs. When they opened the door Elena was standing on the other side ready to turn the knob to let herself in.

"Girls, I think it would be time to pick a new game." Elena suggested.

"I think you're right." Aurora agreed with her mom.

"Mrs. Salvatore... I wasn't really going to flash your husband." Kyla said not thinking Elena would be on the other side of the door.

"I'm sure you won't. But I think it's time you did something else." Elena told them.

"Alright." The girls all said meekly. Elena nodded and left the room, walking back downstairs.

"Please tell me you dealt with that?" Damon asked.

"It's all taken care of." She assured him.

"Good, that was frightening. I refuse to be flashed by a twelve year old. You have no idea how wrong that is." Damon shuddered at the thought.

A couple hours later Elena gathered up two trays of ice cream with various toppings to take upstairs.

"Can you help me honey?" She asked handing one of the heaping trays to her husband.

"Sure, are you sure you want to fill them with sugar? They're already going to be up all night. But at least now they're old enough that we don't have to spend all night awake with them." Damon mentioned.

"Exactly. You take this one to the girls and I'll go to the boys." Elena suggested.

"Why do I get the girls?" He asked.

"Because I got them last time." Elena told him.

"But they're listening to boy bands." He shuddered at the thought.

"You can hear them no matter what. You may as well just do it and get it over with. I'll meet you in our room, I'm ready to

relax for the rest of the night." Elena told him.

"I see immense possibilities in being in our room all alone." Damon told her as they went their separate ways at the top of the stairs.

Elena walked to the boys room and knocked before Aiden opened it just a crack and poked his head out.

"No girls allowed mom." He told her before going to shut the door again.

"Not even a girl who is delivering ice cream?" She asked.

"Why didn't you say that before. Ice cream is always a good enough reason to let a girl in here." Aiden said swinging open the bedroom door to invite his mom in.

"So what are you guys doing?" She asked.

"Oh you know just talking about guy stuff. You wouldn't understand." He shrugged.

"Guy stuff like sex, alcohol and drugs? What are you guys hiding?" Elena asked staring around the room at five guilty looking boys and her son whose expression hadn't changed. Nothing ever really fazed him.

"Nothing Mrs Salvatore." One of the boys said.

"I'm not handing over the ice cream until I know what kind of banned items you're hiding." Elena told them.

"Why do you think they're banned?" Aiden asked glaring at his friends for looking so guilty

"If whatever it was wasn't a banned item you wouldn't be hiding it." Elena told him.

"So if we give it up, we get our ice cream? No matter what it was that we're hiding?" Aiden asked.

"I suppose only because if it's really bad I'll need time to think up your punishment." She told him.

"Okay fine, give her the magazines." He sighed and watched two of the guys pull magazines out of various hiding spots either underneath them or up their shirts.

"Playboys? Where did you get those? I know your dad doesn't have any." Elena asked.

"I stole them from my dad." Jordan told her.

"Well, at least you're honest. I'll be taking these and leaving the ice cream. When I figure out how bad this one will depend on your punishment Aiden James Salvatore." Elena said walking out of the room.

"Phew, that could have been far worse than it was." Aiden sighed in relief as they started putting toppings on their ice cream.

Meanwhile, Damon knocked on the girl's door and waited for one of them to answer. Moments later Kyla answered with her hair wrapped up in a towel and her nails a bright pink colour.

"Kyla." Damon greeted.

"Mr. Salvatore." She replied.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Aurora asked walking over to him with her nails only half painted a brilliant blue colour.

"What did you do to your face? Is my daughter in there somewhere?" He asked with his eyes wide at the 80's reject but worse look his daughter was sporting.

"We're doing makeovers." She explained.

"I can see that. But I brought ice cream with toppings if any of you beauty queens would like to take a break from your beauty regiment. I will never understand girls." He told them.

"We can take a break. Girls always take a break for ice cream." Aurora told her dad and all the other girls came over with their various new looks.

"Thank you Damon." Lilah said to her best friends dad.

"You're welcome. I'm going to bed now, so keep it down." He told them knowing Elena would have told the boys the same

thing.

"Goodnight dad." Aurora called.

"Don't forget to wash all that crap off before you go to bed. You don't want to get acne." He told her.

"Right, thanks dad." Aurora said recalling that rule of makeup. Damon smiled and left the room as quickly as he could between the One Direction music and the makeup he was feeling seriously unmanned.

When Damon walked into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him he saw Elena changing into a pair of shorts and a tank top.

"How was yours?" He asked.

"Check out what your son and his friends were doing?" Elena asked pointing to the magazines on the dresser.

"Why is it that he's my son when he's doing wrong?" He asked as he glanced at the magazines.

"Just because... I mean he was looking at pornography." She hissed.

"I have no need for porn, I have you. You can rest assured those aren't mine." He promised her.

"I know that. They belong to Jordan's dad. He stole them." Elena replied.

"You had to know it was going to happen soon enough. He's a teenage boy, of course he's going to look at porn." He told her kissing the spot where her shoulder met her neck.

"What kind of punishment do you give for something like that?" Elena sighed, feeling more relaxed now that he was with her.

"A warning. Don't punish him because boys will be boys." He told her.

"Fine, how were the girls?" She asked.

"They are doing makeovers. My adorable daughter looks like someone left behind by the 80's." He told her his eyes wide.

"Girls will be girls." She told him throwing his words back at him.

"Promise me that we'll never do this again. Twelve kids is just too many." Damon asked her.

"Don't worry, this was even too much for me." She told him as she crawled into her side of the bed and shut off the light.

They lay in the darkness unable to sleep due to the twelve kids partying and having fun in their rooms.

"I hate sleepovers." Damon remarked.


	13. Year 13

only three more chapters left. I'm kinda doubting it'll be over before school starts like I had planned because school started here TODAY. I'm in the process of moving again, so hopefully updates aren't too long. The next three chapters are going to be fairly easy to write, they're the ones I had planned from the very beginning. This one is a very important moment in a boys life...

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><p>"Come on kids, we have to hit the road!" Damon called upstairs. The family was heading on a road trip to attend the wedding of one of Elena's cousins.<p>

"I'm coming." Aiden called dismally as he slowly walked down the stairs. It was no secret that he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay home and hang out with his friends. That was all that mattered to thirteen year old Aiden Salvatore. Going to the wedding of one of his moms cousins was not his idea of fun. Unless of course there were hot girls that weren't related to him there. That could have potential, Aiden decided.

"Do I have to come?" Aiden asked for the fiftieth time.

"Yes you do. We have to drive to Ohio,there is no way I'm leaving you home alone while we're in Ohio." He told him.

"Come on I'm mature enough." Aiden pleaded.

"I know that's not true. Take your bag and get in the car." He told his son. Aiden muttered under his breath and walked out to the car with his bag in hand.

"Aurora hurry up." Elena called coming downstairs in a pair of denim shorts and a tank top. The wedding wasn't for another two days, but they didn't want to risk getting there late.

"I'm coming, I'm just finishing my makeup." She called as she stared at her reflection in the mirror as she applied mascara.

"We have to get going, I don't want to miss the wedding. Besides we're just sitting in a car, you don't need makeup." Elena called back.

"Yes I do. I can't leave the house without my makeup. If I don't have at least a coat of mascara on then I cant even leave the house" Aurora called back, the absolute terror at the idea coming through her voice.

"Fine, just hurry up. We have to get to Ohio." Elena urged, though she wasn't that eager to go to the wedding. She never did get along with her cousin; she was judgemental and she thought she was absolutely better than everyone else.

A little while later the family was loaded into the SUV and hitting the highway.

"It's my turn to pick the music." Aiden declared when they were finally on their way out of town.

"No, it's mine. We listened to Eminem last time. Rap music is so stupid. It's my turn." Aurora argued.

"You both have Ipod's for heavens sake. Use them." Elena interjected.

"I don't want to listen to my Ipod, I want to listen to music on the kick-ass sound system." Aiden argued.

"Listen to your mother. You can listen to whatever you want back there, but the rules are the rules. Besides I think the general rule is "Driver picks the music."" Damon explained.

"Oh hell no. I have to listen to your eclectic tastes in music all the time. I want to listen to one genre all in a row. Not one rock song, one old pop song and then a country song thrown in for good measure. Pick one genre you want to listen to and stick with it for the duration of the trip." Elena told him, not disputing his rule.

"Fine, let's listen to some old rock until we get bored. Then you can pick the next category." Damon bargained.

"Sounds good to me." Elena agreed as the car silenced, with the kids listening to their own music and rock music playing in the front.

The drive was uneventful for the most part. Aiden and Aurora argued every other mile but that was to be expected from two 13 year olds in close proximity on a really long road trip. There were countless fast food and convenience store bags littering the backseat, along with a few emptied blood bags.

"What does blood taste like dad?" Aiden asked curiously when they past the Ohio state line.

"It's hard to explain. Humans would think it's nasty, but to vampires it's all we need to survive." Damon explained.

"I"m curious." Aiden murmured.

"And the only way you're ever trying it, is if you decide to become a vampire when you're older." Damon told him, effectively ending the train of thought Aiden had in his head.

"Fine." Aiden sighed.

"You really don't want to try it. It's gross." Damon told him.

"But you just said you like it?" Aiden questioned.

"I do like it, but that's because when you're a vampire your senses change. Your tastes and everything. The things that were amazingly appealing don't mean as much anymore, but blood takes center stage." He told him.

"So if I become a vampire, pizza won't be as important to me anymore?" Aiden clarified

"Nope. You'll still like it chances are. And you may even crave it from time to time. Just not as much as you would blood." He agreed.

"Oh." Aiden answered happy with the answer his dad gave him. In recent months he had become more and more intrigued with the option of becoming a vampire. So far he wasn't seeing any flaws with the change. He would have super human strength and speed. He would compel people, mainly women to get whatever he wants from them. It was a flawless plan.

"Are we there yet?" Aurora sighed, more than sick of being in the car.

"We will be in a couple hours." Damon answered.

"We've been driving forever." Aurora whined.

"I'm very much aware of that. It's only been about 7 hours. Imagine if your mom would have let me drive my usual way. We would have been there already." Damon told her, while looking squarely at Elena.

"You don't know these people. I am trying to prolong the inevitable." Elena told him.

"Then why did we have to leave two days before the wedding? Hmm?" He asked her raising his eyebrows.

"Stop questioning my methods. I'm the smart one in this relationship. You're the driver, so shut up and drive." She told him ignoring his question. Damon chuckled under his breath causing Elena to glare at him before he started focusing on the road ahead, driving at the speed limit, which was something he despised.

"Welcome to Cleveland!" Aurora cheered an hour later when they past the sign leading into the city.

"Let's go get checked into our hotel." Damon told them glancing at Elena for approval.

"Sounds good. I need a shower." She told him.

"Imagine how short the 8 hour drive would have been if you would have let me drive my usual speed." Damon retorted.

"Shut up about slow driving. We have children in the car and if you get in an accident while driving the way you do, only two of us are walking away." Elena scolded him.

"But the driver has exceptional reflexes. Don't forget about that." He said as he drove down one of the main streets looking

for the hotel they booked online a couple days ago.

"Another issue is that you get pulled over a lot when you drive like you do. I don't want our kids to watch you cheat your way out of tickets. It sets a bad example for them." Elena told him.

"We set lots of bad examples for them. At some stage we just have to hope that they're smart enough to do as we say not as we do." Damon contradicted.

"I'm so done talking to you." Elena sighed holding up her hand.

"You're just afraid of getting beat." Damon laughed.

"I'm not sinking down to your level. Your lack of maturity astounds me." Elena retorted as he pulled into the parking lot of the Best Western closest to the hall for the wedding.

"You're just giving in because you're fully incapable of sinking to my level. Which by the way completely surpasses the level that you fight at." Damon argued with a wide smirk on his face.

"You're an idiot. Let's just get inside." Elena said laughing and shaking her head. Sometimes it really was impossible to win and argument with him. He brought you down to his level and dazzled you with his wit. When the car was stopped the kids were out of the car before even their parents were. They had their bags and were waiting.

"Let's go." Aurora shouted. "I need to fix my makeup."

"Come on. I need to charge my phone." Aiden whined of his new cell phone that he had bought with the paper route money.

"Let's go." Damon said ushering them into the building. "Our kids and their important global issues. Makeup and dead cell phones, what is the world coming to." Elena stood with the kids while Damon checked them into their room. He hated that they were staying at a hotel that had received less than 5 stars, but Elena had convinced him that five star hotels were not essential to every trip they went on. The economy wasn't like it used to be and they should be a little better with their money if they wanted to give the kids a full ride to college. Damon didn't agree with her assessment, he rationalized that if hotels were too expensive they he compel the staff to give them to him for free. Elena shut down that idea the moment he said it.

"Come on family, let's get to our sub-par room." Damon sighed.

"It's a nice hotel. Besides my mom and dad are staying in the same hotel." Elena told him.

"Great we get to have a sleepover with you mom and dad." Damon muttered sarcastically.

"They have their own room Damon." Elena scowled.

"I'm aware of that. I'm not used to sleeping in the same building as your parents. I don't like it. I like having my privacy from the in-laws." Damon told her.

"We're sharing a room with our kids, whatever you need privacy from my parents for is not happening while we're on this trip." Elena warned him as they waited for the elevator.

"You're so mean to me." Damon whined when the elevator doors opened.

When the day of the wedding finally came, Elena was impatiently waiting for the kids.

"Come on Aiden, you have to wear something other than that. You can't dress like that and go to a wedding." Elena exclaimed trying to get through to her son that wearing a pink DC shirt and black jeans with a pair of DC runners, was not appropriate wedding attire.

"Chicks dig this look and that's all that matters." Aiden shrugged not caring that he'd been having the same argument with his mom for the better part of an hour. He was resolved on not changing, Elena was resolved on forcing him to change and Damon was staying out of it as he told her she should as well.

"Baby, it would be better to stay out of this one. Remember what that book you read says, pick your battles." Damon called out once again from the sitting room where he was looking devastating in a classic suit.

"You just don't wear jeans and a t-shirt to a wedding." Elena exclaimed exasperated.

"Well I do. Nothing you say or do will make me change. I need to meet a chick and this is how I'm going to do it." Aiden responded stubbornly.

"Ugh fine. Wear that. I don't care." Elena decided throwing her hands up in the air in frustration. She walked over to the bathroom door where she could still hear the hair dryer going. "Aurora, hurry up. We have to leave shortly."

"Why are you so eager to get there. You don't like your cousin." Damon asked.

"You don't just show up late to a wedding." Elena muttered sinking into the bed.

"Careful, you're going to ruin your hair." Damon warned her coming to sit next to her

"No one warned me when I was pregnant that having teenagers was going to be this frustrating. I don't think I like them anymore. Can I send them back to where they came from?" Elena asked hopefully.

"I'm thinking not. That would be quite painful I foresee." Damon noted.

"Hmm, that's true. How about leaving them somewhere. They're cute enough that someone would adopt them." Elena suggested, moving her head until it was resting on his shoulder.

"They're old enough to find their way home. That won't work either. I guess we're stuck with them until they turn 18." Damon told her.

"Damn it." Elena sighed.

A little while later they were all ready to go and were piling back into the car that they had spent over eight hours in the other day.

"Off to the wedding we go." Elena muttered. When they got there they quickly took their seats and watched the wedding. They stood and clapped at the appropriate time they were announced as the new Mr. And Mrs. Thankfully, this wedding proceeded right into the reception and dance as the couple were planning on leaving straight after supper for the honeymoon.

"Elena you made it!" Tina, her cousin called out as they walked into the hall for the dance.

"I'm here. This is my husband Damon."Elena introduced the two who had never met.

"Good to meet you. Elena you look so young. Have you had work done?" She asked appraising Elena's still 18 year old looks as opposed to her own 31.

"Nope, I'm just ageing gracefully. These are my kids Aiden and Aurora." Elena introduced, pointing out the kids who were doing their own things out on the dance floor.

"How do you look so good when you've had two kids? I'm betting tummy tuck or something. I mean how else would you keep a hold on a guy like that. You're no picnic in the conversation department, or the humour department, or the friendly department, or the romance department. All you have is your looks. Even your intelligence is sub-par." She listed as Elena glowered.

"I am not with my wife because she's absolutely gorgeous, which by the way she is. She makes you look cheap by the way. I'm with her because she's everything. She's an amazing mother, she's the only one on the planet that can keep up with my wit and my humour. She's extremely patient and kind. Her looks are an added bonus." Damon responded feeling extremely protective of his wife. He wrapped his arm around his waist and kissed her temple.

"Well something big must have changed then because last time I saw you, you were boring as hell." She muttered before

striding away.

"Something did change. I met you." Elena whispered as she walked away.

"Meanwhile Aiden was prowling the room looking for any unrelated girls that he could hit on. He was feeling pretty hot, he stood out with his striking blue eyes and dark messy hair which made him look like a younger version of his dad. His clothes made him stand out too, on a scale of one to ten he was an eleven, and he knew that.

"Hey there what's your name?" Aiden asked seeing a cute blonde standing on the other side of the punch bowl.

"Cassidy, what's yours?" She asked.

"Aiden. So who are you here with?" He asked.

"My dad. He's the best man. Todd is my dads best friend." She answered,

"Ah so you're not related to anyone here besides your dad? You're not one of my long lost relatives?" He clarified.

"Nope." She agreed.

"Wanna dance?" He asked.

"Absolutely." She answered smiling. He took her hand and led her onto the dance floor. Step one in operation first kiss was a go. For the first time in his life he was thankful for the dance lessons he was forced into last year.

The two thirteen year olds danced for a couple hours and they talked. Aiden was playing the game just the way he was supposed to. He was on the road to victory, by the end of the night this girl would be all over him. He would get his kiss, he would go back to the hotel room, sleep the night off and then head home a man. He would have had something that none of his friends did, he would have gotten his first kiss. The plan was foolproof.

"Wanna sit down for a little while?" Cassidy asked.

"Sure." Aiden agreed following her over to a chair. They sat down and talked for a while before Aiden cleared his throat. He glanced over his shoulder and saw his dad regarding him with a curious expression on his face. It looked like he was warring with himself over separating the two thirteen year olds or letting things go where they were obviously heading. Damon mouthed ten minutes at him, which Aiden took for how long he had until they were leaving. Of course the one time he was enjoying himself they were taking him away early.

"Hey, Cassidy. I have been wanting to do this all night."Aiden murmured knowing he had to make it quick. He felt butterflies in his stomach as he prepared to kiss the girl.

"What?" She asked almost breathlessly as she waited for him. Instead of answering he leaned in and kissed her softly. He just pressed his lips to hers and then pulled back almost immediately. Pretty good for a first kiss he decided.

"I just wanted to do that." He told her before pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

"Where are you going?" She asked dazed.

.

"My mom and dad said it's time to go. See they're standing by the door." He told her.

"Will I see you again?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. I live in Virginia. It's an eight hour drive and I'm only thirteen." He told her shrugging.

"So this was only for tonight?" She clarified.

"Probably, but you never know in the future." He told her smiling at her before leaving to rejoin his parents.


	14. Year 14

I am soooooo sorry for those of you still reading this story. It was supposed to be finished a couple months ago but it's still not there. Here is another chapter and I'm not going to make another promise for when it'll be done. I just promise that due to my new updating schedule it'll be done sooner than it would have been without it. I hope you enjoy year 14 and tune into the next one which will be out hopefully next week or the week after.

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><p>"Aurora you have to tell your mom and dad!" Lilah exclaimed as her best friend kept shaking her head.<p>

"I can't tell them. They'll say no. I'm only 14." Aurora declined.

"Aiden had his first kiss last year. You told me about that wedding. Come on they're bound to let you go out on a date with Jackson." Lilah insisted.

"Oh no they won't. Well my dad won't. He has made the rule... no dating until you graduate. That's the last time I watch a movie with him." Aurora scowled.

"What movie?" Lilah asked curiously.

"10 things I hate about you. In the movie the dad tells the girls that they can't date until they graduate." Aurora explained.

"Your mom would let you go out wouldn't they?" Lilah asked.

"Yeah, but I can't tell my mom and not my dad. He would find out anyways and I'd still not be able to go." Aurora whined.

"Has Jackson actually asked you out yet?" Lilah asked knowing that was a crucial point.

"No, but I really really like him. He's so cute." Aurora sighed.

"I know he is, but you can't expect to go on a date with him if he hasn't asked you out yet." Lilah reminded her.

"I know and he probably won't ask me out; I'm not interesting in any way. I just wish my dad would realize that I'm a teenager now. I need to go out on dates." Aurora screeched.

"We're so lucky your mom and dad are out right now. They don't need to hear this conversation." Lilah noted.

"I know. But why am I so different. Aiden gets to do whatever he wants pretty much. He kisses girls, he dates girls and I've caught him drinking a time or two. But then I want to go on a date with a boy and I get "not until you graduate."" Aurora complained.

"You're a girl. Rules are different for girls." Lilah sighed not liking it anymore than Aurora did.

"But why? Girls are just as good as boys are. Girls can do the same things boys can for the most part. Aiden is the same age as me but he has freedom and I don't." Aurora sighed audibly.

"Brothers are evil aren't they?" Lilah agreed. Aurora nodded her head and collapsed back onto the bed.

"I just want to go on a date with Jackson. He's so cute." Aurora muttered as she heard the front door open meaning that her parents had just arrived home.

"Okay so how are you going to play this?" Lilah asked curiously.

"I'm not going to act different at all until he asks me out. Then I will figure out what to do." Aurora resolved.

"That sounds like a good plan. But my mom is going to be here to pick you up in a while, so we should go downstairs." Lilah suggested.

"Okay." Aurora agreed as the teenage girls practically skipped down the stairs into the living room, completely bypassing the kitchen where Damon and Elena were arguing about dinner choices.

"I don't feel like cooking tonight and you can't cook. I kinda like our kids and want to keep them alive." Damon stated.

"Then what do you suggest dear?" Elena asked sardonically.

"I suggest we go out for dinner." Damon told her again. He was shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"Aiden is grounded remember. He can't leave the house except for school. I can hear that horrendous music coming from

his room so I know he's here. He can't go out for dinner because he's grounded Damon." Elena reminded him.

"I still don't think he deserved to get grounded for that. All teenage boys dabble in the stuff at some point." Damon disagreed.

"You may be cool with walking in and catching our son doing marijuana, but I'm not. He's grounded and he's not going out for dinner with us." Elena stated straight to the point.

"Then oh smart one what do you suggest we do?" Damon asked sarcastically.

"You're just going to have to cook supper." Elena decided.

"I'm not cooking supper. I want to go to the Grille and have a burger." Damon stated not budging.

"You clearly don't understand the meaning of grounded." Elena sighed.

"I understand it just fine. He should be allowed out with us, just not with his friends." Damon insisted.

"Fine! You win. We'll go out for supper." Elena sighed throwing her hands up in the air.. He was impossible to fight with, he never gave up.

"Good, at least now you see sense. Tomorrow I promise to cook." Damon told her looking into her annoyed brown eyes.

"You'd better. I'm not letting him out of the house again until his sentence is compete." Elena stated firmly as she walked into the living room where the girls were sitting waiting for Lilah's mom.

"Good afternoon girls." Elena said sitting down on the chair.

"Hi mom." Aurora greeted her smiling.

"So how was school. Your dad and I had some running around to do so we weren't here when you got home." Elena asked.

"It was good. No homework which was nice." Aurora answered.

"That's good. So apparently we're going out for dinner tonight." Elena mentioned idly.

"I know I heard." Aurora replied.

"I think your mom is here Lilah." Elena said after a moment.

"I still find that weird that you can here my moms car before she even stops." Lilah laughed.

"Perks of being undead I suppose." Elena said dryly.

"I suppose." Lilah agreed getting up and grabbing her backpack.

The next day Elena came home from spending time with Caroline to find Damon cooking dinner.  
>"Look I'm cooking." Damon said smirking at his wife.<p>

"I'm glad to see it. I'm sorry for freaking out on you yesterday. It's just that Aiden is driving me crazy and I don't know what to do about it. I lash out at you because I know you can take it and not leave me." Elena told him wrapping her arms around him from behind.

"You're right. And I know I'm being irritatingly nonchalant about everything he's doing. But it's simply because I know it's just a phase and he really is a good kid." Damon told her.

"I know that. But I just never expected him to be so like you." She sighed as she heard the school bus pull up outside and the kids get off. Seconds later they were walking through the door and taking their stuff upstairs to their rooms.

"God me neither. Sometimes the kid scares me." Damon admitted as he stirred the pasta on the stove.

"Me too, but I know you're right. He'll be fine." Elena assured him pressing a kiss in the middle of his back.

"I love you." Damon said as he poured the cooked pasta into a roasting dish.

"What are you making?" Aiden asked coming into the kitchen.

"Baked chicken alfredo. You have time, you guys should go get your homework done." Damon told them.

"Do I have to?" Aiden asked frowning.

"Yep. Get it done. Keep in mind the good behaviour clause your mom put on your grounding." Damon reminded him.

"Ugh fine." Aiden whined trudging back up the stairs.

"Alright." Aurora exclaimed with a wide smile on her face a skip in her step. Damon's eyebrows shot up and Elena's mouth dropped.

"Just what is going on with her?" Damon asked curiously as he wrapped his arm around Elena's waist slipping his hand in the back pocket of her jeans.

"I have no clue." Elena answered shaking her head at their daughters bizarre behaviour.

"She's a teenage girl, I'm just going to say it's because of that." Damon decided as he covered the pasta in cheese and put it in the oven.

"Let's go sit down and watch some TV for a while before our lives are terrorized by the imps again." Elena suggested, tugging Damon towards the living room.

When dinner was ready the kids filed into the kitchen and settled into their accustomed seats. Aiden was acting normal as far as he went. He was sullenly eating his dinner so he could flee the table and sit in his room for the rest of the night. Aurora however smiled all through dinner and she was starting to concern her parents.

"What's going on Aurora?" Damon asked suspiciously. Neither of them smiled this much during dinner. It was usually spent with conversations about school with the kids answering reluctantly, before Damon and Elena gave up and just talked to each other.

"Oh nothing daddy. I'm just really happy tonight." She said smiling and twirling a strand of hair around her finger. Now if possible Damon was even more suspicious. Aurora had never acted like this before and he was complete baffled.

"Did anything happen today that we should be aware of?" Damon asked.

"Nope. Nothing. I'm just really happy." She said with a starstruck look in her eyes. Her smile was wide and her blue eyes were shining happily.

"Okay then." Damon said shaking his head as he finished his plate of dinner and left the table. He started the dishes in the

kitchen and Elena came in to join him. He looked at her questionably and Elena just shrugged her shoulders, meaning that she had no idea what was going on.

"Aiden and Aurora brought their plates in a few minutes later before going back upstairs to their rooms to finish their homework.

"I think an alien took possession of our daughter." Damon noted as he washed the dishes handing them over to Elena to dry and put away. When there were two of them doing the dishes they didn't use the dishwasher, it was just as easy getting things over and done with.

"I'm thinking you're right. I've never seen her like that." Elena noted as she took a plate out of Damon's soapy hands.

"I think she's keeping something from us." Damon told her not liking the sound of that.

"All teenage girls have secrets from their parents. I'm sure Aurora is no different." Elena told him.

"I think you should talk to her." Damon decided.

"Alright. I'll ask her if there is anything going on. If she doesn't tell me anything let's just be happy that she's happy." Elena bargained.

"Deal. I'll finish dishes if you want to go investigate." Damon suggested.

"Deal." Elena said putting the dish towel on the counter and leaving the kitchen. She knocked on Aurora's door and opened it finding Aurora lying with her head hanging over the bed as she texted with a wide smile on her face.

"Hi mom, what's up?" She asked sitting up and grinning.

"Can we talk for a minute? Your dad thinks you got abducted by aliens or something." Elena asked.

"I promise nothing bad happened mom." Aurora assured her mom, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

"I have a question for you first." Aurora started.

"Sure, ask anything." Elena told her daughter, sinking into the desk chair beside Aurora's bed.

"Was dad your first love?" Aurora asked curiously.

"I thought I was in love with Matt before I met your dad but yes. Your dad was my first love, I never knew what it was until I met him. Why do you ask?" Elena asked.

"How did you feel when you found out how you felt about him?" Aurora asked again.

"I was so happy. And I hoped and prayed that he felt the same way about me. It's an all encompassing feeling and it gets even more intense the longer it goes on. I fall in love with your dad every single day of my life." Elena explained, a bright smile coming onto her face as she talked about how much she loved him.

"You guys fight though." Aurora pointed out.

"I know, but that doesn't mean I don't continue to fall in love with him every day. He's in my mind every second, every minute and every hour of every day. Even when I don't want to be thinking about him, I do. Yes we fight, but we fight because we love each other. No relationship is perfect, you have to have ups and downs. Now why are you asking all these questions?" Elena asked.

"I met a boy. He's in my history class." Aurora admitted smiling brightly.

"Oh, did he ask you out?" Elena asked smiling, knowing Damon was going to have a fit over this. He'd already forbid her from dating until she graduated, which Elena thought was a little extreme.

"No, and I don't know if he will or not. But I really really like him." Aurora admitted.

"You're an amazing girl Aurora Charlotte Salvatore. This boy would be silly to not ask you out." Elena told her daughter.

"His name is Jackson. Whenever I think about him I feel all giddy inside. But the problem is I've never even spoken to him." Aurora admitted.

"You could always make the first move." Elena suggested.

"I can't do that. He has to ask me out." Aurora exclaimed.

"I understand that. But hey at least now I know you didn't get abducted or anything." Elena said hugging her daughter.

"Thank you for your advice mom. At least now I know what I'm feeling isn't weird." Aurora thanked her mom.

"It's not weird. It's completely normal for you to feel that way." Elena promised her before leaving the room and heading

back to Damon.

Elena found Damon in the sitting room drinking from a large tumbler full of bourbon.  
>"You were up there for a while. Is everything okay?" He asked as Elena deposited herself in his lap. His arms reflexively went around her and she leaned in to his embrace.<p>

"So you didn't listen in?" She clarified.

"Nope, I thought I'd behave. Is it bad?" He asked.

"She didn't get abducted in any way I can assure you of that." Elena told him.

"Phew. So what's really going on with her?" He asked eager to find out what's got his daughter acting all crazy..

" Aurora has a crush." Elena stated with a smile on her face.


	15. Year 15

Here we go. Aiden and Aurora are 15 in this chapter. Second last one... it's almost done.

* * *

><p>"Hey, I'm going to that dance tonight." Aiden told his parents at dinner on a Friday night.<p>

"Are you going to that dance?" Damon asked Aurora.

"No, I'm having a sleepover at Lilah's instead. I told you about it last week." Aurora told them.

"Oh right I remember. How are you getting to that dance?" Damon asked.

"Josh's mom and dad are driving me. I already talked to them." Aiden told his dad smugly.

"And how are you getting home?" Damon asked.

"Josh's mom and dad again. Don't worry it's not going to take any effort at all from you to get me to and from the party." Aiden assured his parents.

"Uh huh. I don't remember giving you permission to go to the dance." Damon recalled pondering.

"You did. Last week. Come on, I stayed grounded for as long as I was supposed to. You have to let me go to the dance. I have dates waiting for me there." He insisted.

"Dates? As in plural?" Elena asked raising her eyebrows.

"Of course dates as in plural. I can't just turn down all the girls that ask me to go with them for one. They're all too hot to turn down. A guy has to keep his options open." He said shaking his head.

"You're joking right? When you take a girl out, you can only take one. I didn't raise you to play with girls feelings." Elena told him.

"I'm not. I told each and every one of them that I wasn't only taking them. I would take them for a portion of the night and then move on. I was completely honest with them." Aiden argued.

"I don't like this Aiden. Besides your dad and I are going out tonight so we might not be home when you get home. I don't like the idea of you being home alone."Elena told him biting her lip.

"Where are you guys going?" Aiden asked.

"The Lockwood's are having a party. We'll be home around midnight." Elena told him

"Well I'll stay at the dance until around 12 and then get a ride home. That way I won't be home alone." He offered, knowing full well that's not how the night would go.

"I think that sounds safe. What to you think Elena?" Damon asked shrugging. He couldn't see anything wrong with that idea.

"It sounds fine as long as you don't come home early to have a party or something." She told him.

"I won't, don't worry. You can trust me mom." Aiden said trying to make himself look innocent.

"Now I really don't believe you." Elena told him narrowing her eyes.

"Why not? I promise you can trust me. I won't do anything that you wouldn't want me to."Aiden promised.

"Alright, fine. I'm giving you a chance here." Elena decided giving in.

"Great, thanks mom." Aiden thanked them profusely.

"Don't make me regret it." Elena warned him as she took her plate into the kitchen. Damon followed behind her and Elena turned to face him.

"Do you think we can trust him tonight?" Elena asked hopefully.

"He was grounded for over a month. I choose to believe that he's going to behave tonight. He doesn't want to be grounded

for that long again." Damon spoke certainly.

"I hope you're right." Elena sighed as she ran water in the sink while the kids brought their plates into the kitchen.

Later that evening Elena changed into a red dress for the Lockwood Party.

"I love that dress on you." Damon told her coming out of the bathroom with a perfectly tailored suit on.

"I'm glad. I love that suit on you." Elena told him smiling at her husband.

"We are going to steal the show again. Not that that should be a surprise. We're always the best looking couple at any of

these things." Damon told her helping her zip up the dress.

"I wonder where Aiden gets his ego from." Elena wondered idly.

"You know where it comes from." Damon teased her as he kissed the side of her neck. She slipped into a pair of black peep-toes and grabbed her small purse.

"Are you ready to go?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's just wait for Josh's parents to pick up Aiden." Damon suggested and Elena nodded her head. They walked downstairs and found Aiden sitting on the couch in a pair of jeans, a t shirt and a leather jacket.

"You're going to the dance looking like that?" Elena asked staring at his outfit.

"I look hot." Aiden shrugged.

"You are too much like your dad." Elena said shaking her head.

"I take offence to that. I would never go to a dance looking like that." Damon argued pointing at Aiden.

"That's because you can't pull off a look like this." Aiden said smirking.

"Oh please,I rock that look every day of the week. You can't pull off a suit like I can." Damon told him.

"I don't want to be able to pull off a suit." Aiden argued just as a horn honked outside. "Gotta go."

"Have fun." Elena called as she grabbed her jacket and headed to the door as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aiden walked into the dance with Josh and immediately sought out the first of his dates for the night.

"Ah there she is. I'll see you later." Aiden said as he walked off to his first date of the night, a cheerleader.

"Aiden, there you are." She said grinning at him.

"I'm here." He told her offering her his arm.

"I think we should dance." She said leading him onto the dance floor.

"I think you're right." He returned as he took he onto the dance floor.

"So which one of your dates are you taking home tonight?" She asked.

"Whichever one I like the most by the end of the night." He told her and she grinned.

"I think you'll like me. I'm not a virgin." She told him.

"That's definitely one point in your favour." He told her as they danced. Aiden Salvatore had every intention of losing his virginity tonight. It was guaranteed to happen with the way every girl in the gym was looking at him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So where are your kids tonight?" Carol Lockwood asked Damon and Elena when they showed up at the party.

"Aurora is at Lilah's house and Aiden is at the school dance." Elena told her.

"Oh right,Caroline is chaperoning that tonight." Carol said.

"I'm glad she's there. She'll keep Aiden from getting into too much trouble." Elena sighed thankfully.

"Aiden is quite a troublemaker isn't he?" She asked laughing.

"He can be." Elena allowed.

"Tyler was a troublemaker too, until he met Caroline. Sometimes it just takes the right girl to tame a boy." Carol told her.

"I know all about that. Elena tamed me." Damon shot in.

"So it'll probably be like father like son. Aiden will get tamed by a girl." Carol told them.

"Probably as long as it doesn't happen right now we're all good." Elena said.

"Well yes of course. I better go mingle with my other guests." Carol said walking away from the vampire couple.

"How do you think the kids are doing?" Elena asked curiously.

"Aurora is most definitely fine. She's with Lilah. Aiden is probably fine too, just in a completely different way." Damon decided.

"I still can't believe that he has more than one date. That's such an Aiden thing to do." Elena sighed shaking her head.

Sometimes her son drove her completely crazy.

"I'm sure I would have done the same thing had I had school dances back in the 1800's." Damon told her.

"I could see that."Elena laughed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The longer the dance went on the more sure Aiden got that he was going to take the cheerleader home. Out of all the girls he'd asked, she was the only one who expressed any interest in going home with him. When ten hit he walked over to Chelsey the cheerleader and grabbed her arm.

"Wanna come home with me?" He asked her.

"Absolutely." She told him as she said goodbye to her friends and followed Aiden out.

"We're going to have to walk back to my house. It's not a really long walk." Aiden told her as they left the school. It only

took them about twenty-five minutes to get back to Aiden's house.

"Wow this is your house?" She asked looking at the grand exterior.

"Yeah, it helps when your parents are loaded." Aiden shrugged as they walked inside.

"Are your parents home?" She asked.

"No, they're at a Lockwood party. They won't be home until midnight or so." He told her.

"Sounds good to me. So I guess you have to show me your bedroom." She told him as he unlocked the front door and walked inside.

"So this is my house." He said as he walked her through to the stairs.

"It's nice." She told him as she followed him.

"Yes. It's better than the other house." He told her as they walked to his bedroom.

"I'm sure. So have you ever done this before?" She asked.

"It's pretty straight forward." He told her shrugging.

"You're a virgin?! Yes, I get to take Aiden Salvatore's virginity!" She cheered.

"Be proud of the accomplishment." He told her.

"Oh believe me I am. So I guess the only thing there is to do now is to get naked." She told him as she started working on her clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I had to get out of there." Elena breathed happily when they finally pulled up outside their house.

"Yeah, so much politicking. It's hardly necessary." Damon agreed as they walked up to the door. When they opened the door all they could hear was heavy breathing coming from upstairs.

"Who wants to investigate?" Elena asked.

"I'll do it. Because I have a pretty good feeling about what hes up to up there." Damon told her shaking his head.

"I think we're on the same page. I'm going to go change." Elena told him following him up the stairs.

"I'll be in there in a minute or two." He said as he veered off at the top of the stairs in a different direction than Elena went. He moved quietly so as to not alert Aiden to his presence. He had dreamed of this moment when he got to break up something that shouldn't be happening. The closer he got to Aiden's room, the more obvious the sounds got. It didn't help that there were a pair of girls shoes in the mud room that didn't belong to anyone in the family. Not caring about he would find he swung open the door and Aiden squealed in annoyance.

"Dad, what the hell are you doing home so early?!" He demanded ensuring the blanket was covering everything on both of them.

"I think I live here." He said non-chalant. He leaned against the door-jam knowing he was making both teenagers uncomfortable.

"You need to get out. You guys said you weren't going to be home until midnight. It's not midnight." Aiden wailed while the girl slid until the blankets until you couldn't see anything of her.

"We got bored. So we came home. I'm sure your mom is going to want to talk to you, so maybe you should get dressed and meet us downstairs. You have five minutes or else I'm coming back up here." He told them as he left the room shutting the door. Knowing Elena would have heard him talking he went straight downstairs to find Elena sitting at the table still in her red dress.

"I knew he was going to do this. I just knew it." Elena said as she got up to make a pot of coffee. Damon chuckled slightly and heard footsteps on the stairs. A grumpy looking Aiden came into the room first followed by a embarrassed looking teenage girl.

"Sit both of you." Damon ordered as Elena sat down beside him.

"Dad, you shouldn't have been home." Aiden said certain that he did nothing wrong.

"Aiden, you're only 15. You shouldn't be doing things that you need us to be away for." Elena told him.

"I'm 15, I need action." Aiden complained.

"No you don't. Not that kind of action. You just got ungrounded, you really want to go there again?" Elena asked.

"I was just having sex! It's not a cardinal sin." Aiden exclaimed.

"You're having sex when you're 15 years old. Do you know the consequences of those actions?" Elena asked.

"It would never happen. We're not likely to get pregnant the first time we have sex. It doesn't work like that." Aiden said certainly.

"It doesn't work that way. The very first time I had sex ever I got pregnant with you." Elena stated exasperated.

"Well it's unlikely." Aiden said shrugging.

"It's not unlikely. It's very possible. You're just lucky your dad stopped you when he did." Elena told him crossing her arms.

"Maybe I should go." Chelsey said standing up.

"Yes, I will drive you home. Damon, talk to your son." She said standing up and grabbing her keys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Elena got back a few minutes later after dropping Chelsey off at home and telling her parents just what she was up to with Aiden, she walked in to find Damon on the couch whistling and no sign of Aiden.  
>"So where is Aiden?" Elena asked sitting down beside him.<p>

"Hiding out in his room." Damon answered.

"Why?" Elena asked.

"Because I so totally just gave me son a sex talk." Damon laughed.


	16. Year 16

Okay this is pretty much the same chapter that I deleted, it's just a little bit better edited and not written on my iPad. This version is better I promise for those of you who read the last one. This is the end of the story now an I feel sad that its over with. I loved exploring Aiden and Aurora Salvatore with you guys for the past several months. Thank you all for the support you have given this little story. Aiden and Aurora are 16 now and this would be just a little while before Safe in my arms starts.

* * *

><p>"Lilah Jones, you better not have plans this weekend." Sixteen year old Aurora Salvatore shouted as she ran up to her best friend with a pronounced bounce in her step.<p>

"Of course I don't, why?" Lilah asked knowing she only ever had plans when Aurora planned something for the two of them,

"Well good because you and I are going to the senior prom." Aurora squealed.

"We're what?" Lilah asked certain she had heard her best friend wrong.

"You heard me perfectly well. You and I are going to the senior prom." She repeated with a bright smile on her face. Her blue eyes were lit up beautifully and anyone could tell that she was excited.

"You're going to have to catch me up here Ror, you can't go to the senior prom unless you're asked by a senior." Lilah reminded her.

"We were asked by seniors. Jason and Toby, you know from the football team?" Aurora asked knowing she knew who she was talking about.

"Really?" Lilah asked shocked to even think about it. It was practically unheard of for senior boys to steep down low enough to ask sophomores out to the prom.

"Are you serious, like completely serious?" Lilah asked finally, wanting nothing more than to believe what her best friend had told her.

"Dead serious. I'm not playing around here Lil, I'm 100% serious. You have to come with me." Aurora spoke seriously,

"The question is, is your dad going to let you go?" Lilah asked knowing all about Damon's obsession with keeping his daughter away from boys.

"I'll talk to my mom. She'll help me." Aurora decided.

"Yeah, if anyone can change your dads mind it'll be your mom." Lilah agreed.

"This is so awesome, I didn't think I'd have a chance to go to senior prom until senior year." Aurora squealed as she threw

her arms around her best friend and bounced around in a circle cheering.

Aurora went to all of her classes that day with a broad smile on her face. All day she could hear people talking about her with envy clear in her voice. It wasn't too often that she was in that position, aside from a couple notable times. Every girl in Aurora's grade wanted to be asked to the senior prom by a senior boy, but it happened for Aurora and Lilah. It made her even happier to know that Aiden hadn't found a way to get to the prom yet. He hadn't been able to ask any of the senior girls and he hadn't been asked. For the first time in her life she was going to get something that Aiden didn't. The idea was completely astonishing.

"Hey Loser." Aiden greeted her as he walked by her table at lunch time with his group of friends behind him.

"Aiden." She greeted sourly, her brother had this inane ability to make her perfect day that much gloomier by just making an appearance.

"Anything new and exciting? Oh right it's you, of course there isn't." He teased as he began walking away.

"Actually there is. I am going to the senior prom on Friday." Aurora told him smugly.

"Yeah right. Who would ask you?" Aiden asked laughing. The guys standing behind him snickered a little bit too and

Aurora glared at him.

"Jason and Toby asked Lilah and I today. We're going with them." Aurora answered.

"You may want to turn them down. You know that dad would never let you go out with boys older than you. He wouldn't let you go with boys of any age." Aiden laughed as he recalled that Aurora had no chance at all to work this one out.

"Worry not brother. I will work something out." She told him firmly as Aiden walked away with his friends. What Aurora had yet to figure out was how to get her dad to let her go. She would have to handle this one very carefully.

Later that day when Aurora walked into the house with Aiden by her side she immediately took her books upstairs. Aiden had teased her the entire way home about most likely having to tell her date she couldn't go. Even through all the teasing Aurora remained confident that she would be able to go. Lilah had texted her earlier telling her that she had permission to go, all that was left was Aurora herself getting the necessary permission. When her books were safely in her room where they belonged, Aurora walked downstairs to find her mom and dad arguing about dinner.

"Ah, Aurora what do you think? Does ketchup belong anywhere near a steak?" Damon asked seriously.

"Absolutely not." Aurora answered knowing that was the answer her dad expected. Every little bit of help she could get was needed.

"Good answer. That settles it, no ketchup on steak Elena." Damon said firmly.

"It's not me that wants the ketchup, it's your son." Elena pointed out.

"Right, and you said he could have it. The boy is not defacing my steak with ketchup." Damon muttered dead serious.

"Fine he's not. I wouldn't think that it would be that big of a deal."Elena sighed walking out of the kitchen.

"It's a massive deal. It's practically a cardinal sin to put ketchup on my steak." Damon muttered as Elena walked out of the kitchen with Aurora following her.

"How was school today?" Elena asked her daughter who joined her on the back patio.

"It was really good. I actually wanted to talk to you about something." Aurora admitted.

"I kinda figured. I could see it on your face and judging by the fact that you didn't just blurt out whatever's on your mind, I just figured you didn't want you dad to know." Elena mused.

"Yeah. Dad does have to know, I just need your opinion first." Aurora told her mom.

"Okay, what's on your mind?" Elena asked sitting forward on her chair.

"Okay today at school Lilah and I got asked to go to the senior prom by a couple of senior boys. We both really want to go and her parents already said yes. I was just wondering what the chances are of you letting me go? Aurora asked hopefully.

"I have no issues letting you go. It would be fun. Your only issue is that your dad basically said no dating until you graduate." Elena reminded her.

"You're really good with him. I was really hoping you could convince him." Aurora suggested hopefully.

"I could try but I don't know how helpful that would be. When your dad gets something in his head it's damn here

impossible to change." Elena warned her daughter.

"But you'll try? I really, really want to go." She asked hopefully.

"I'll try but one way or another you are going to that dance." Elena promised her daughter.

"Thanks mom." Aurora said before rushing out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~DE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Friday evening finally rolled around, Aurora came home happier than she could ever remember being. Her dad had reluctantly agreed to let her go to the dance after lots of careful insistence from her mom. Aurora didn't want to know how her mom got her dad to change his mind. It definitely wasn't at the top of Aurora's list of things to do.

"So you're ready for this dance of yours?" Damon asked when Aurora walked through the door with Lilah.

"Definitely. Thank you for letting me go." She said sweetly.

"Don't mention it. Dinner is ready go and eat." He said. The girls walked into the dining room and ate quickly needing all the possible time to get ready for the dance.

"You owe me big for this." Damon told Elena when they were all seated at the table.

"I already paid for this." Elena reminded him.

"Maybe so, but I still think that Aurora is getting the better end of the stick." Damon muttered.

A little while later the girls were upstairs getting ready.

"I love this dress. I'm so happy I chose it." Aurora said of her royal purple dress that dropped to approximately her knees and was strapless. She loved every single thing about the dress and was happy it was the one she chose at the end of the day.

"It looks amazing on you." Lilah agreed.

"They're going to be here any minute now." Aurora squealed when she glanced at the clock.

"How do I look?" Lilah asked her friend.

"Beautiful, let's go." Aurora said when she heard the doorbell ring.

Damon answered the door and glowered at the two boys.

"Mr. Salvatore, we're here to pick up Lilah and Aurora." Jason said.

"How old are you?" Damon demanded, thinking they looked way too old to be dating his daughter. Damon was figuring that Elena had kept a few things to herself in regards to Aurora's date tonight.

"Eighteen." They answered simultaneously.

"Oh hell no." Damon muttered glaring at the guys. Never had Aurora or Elena ever mentioned the guys being eighteen

years old. There was no way an eighteen year old was taking his sixteen year old daughter to a dance.

"Daddy be nice." Aurora insisted when she came down the stairs.

"Believe me I am going to be nice." Damon said sweetly before turning to the guys.

"Daddy what are you going to do?"Aurora asked nervously. She never quite knew what her dad was capable of. He was calm so that was a good thing. Damon felt his fangs drop down and veins envelop his eyes. He had the pleasure of seeing Jason and Toby's eyes bug out and fear overcome their expression.

"Now boys you will not be going to the dance tonight with my daughter or her friend. In fact you are never going to talk to or look at her again. The two of you will never be seen in this town again, you will go to college in Richmond." Damon compelled him, his eyes focused on his. When he broke the spell, he let his features return to normal and watched with glee as the boys ran away. When he turned back around he was faced with the disapproving glares of three women.

"Cant blame me for being a bit protective" He muttered brushing past them into the living room where he poured himself a generous glass of bourbon.


End file.
